Madras High Court orders second postmortem in the Kallakurichi student death incident

The Madras High Court has ordered a re-postmortem in the case of the Kallakurichi student, who allegedly died by suicide on July 13 after she jumped from the third floor of the hostel of private institution, Kaniyamoor Sakthi Matriculation School. She was 17 years old and was a student of Class XII.

The re-postmortem was ordered following a complaint filed by the father of the student. It was ordered by Justice Satish Kumar and he directed it to be carried out by a team of doctors. The petitioner and his advocate K Kesavan have been permitted to be present without any hindrance during its proceedings, as per an IANS report.

He additionally directed the parents to accept the girl's body after the re-postmortem and to conduct her funeral peacefully. Judge Kumar has restrained the girl's parents from giving interviews to the media, taking into consideration the plea by the police that it might lead to disruptions.

The judge has also asked the police to take action against those who were conducting parallel investigations and trials on social media in the matter. He questioned the case of people taking the law into their hands and indulging in violence. He directed the police to form special teams to identify the mischief makers and take them to task.

Massive protests were seen by student outfits in the district, resulting in riots and violence on Sunday, July 17. Justice Kumar said that the peaceful agitation suddenly taking a violent turn was not sporadic and "appeared like organised crime". He has asked the police to ensure that stringent action is taken against all the perpetrators of violence, to send a signal to all those who are likely to indulge in such activity in the future, as per IANS.

Two teachers were arrested on July 18 and several others, including the institution's principal, were arrested the day before. The case has been taken over by CB-CID and Justice Kumar has recorded the state public prosecutor's statement. He said that if any suicide occurs in educational institutions, the case must be taken up by the CB-CID and the postmortem conducted by a team of three doctors in the future.