Youth suspects foul play in death; RTI Act comes to aid

Youth suspects foul play in death; RTI Act comes to aid

Mohamed Imranullah S.
MADURAI: The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 has proved to be of great help to A. Bakrudeen Ali Ahamed, of Karaikudi in Sivaganga district, who suspected foul play in the death of his 22-year-old sister at her in-law's residence in Gomathipuram here within nine months of her marriage.

The youth could not believe that his sister Rabia Banu could have committed suicide on February 18 and his suspicion was strengthened by not one but two ligature marks on her neck. He immediately made arrangements to take pictures of the corpse before burying it in their native place.

The Karuppayurani police here initially registered a case under Section 174 (enquiring a suicide case) of the Code of Criminal Procedure and subsequently altered it to Section 304-B (Dowry death) of the Indian Penal Code. The husband of the deceased was also remanded to judicial custody.

However, not satisfied with the probe, Mr. Ahamed wanted the police to register a murder case against the culprits. He also believed that his sister's father-in-law, a retired Joint Director of Prosecution having a good rapport with many police officials, was influencing the investigation officer to weaken the case.

The bereaved brother tried to obtain a copy of the post mortem certificate in order to cross-check the injuries recorded in it with those found in the photographs of the corpse. But he could not get hold of the certificate from the judicial magistrate's court as it was supposedly missing from the case bundle.

It was then that he filed an application under the RTI Act and obtained the certificate from the Dean of a medical college where the autopsy was conducted.

Thereafter, he moved the Madras High Court Bench here seeking transfer of investigation to some other district police other than Madurai.

Satisfied with the submissions made by his counsel R. Paul Sukumar and after perusing the post mortem certificate as well as the photographs, Justice R. Mala said: “I am of the opinion that the deceased could not have died of asphyxia due to hanging since there were two external injuries on the body.”

The judge directed the Inspector General of Police (south zone) to withdraw the case from the present investigation officer and hand it over to Deputy Superintendent of Police, Tirumangalam Sub-Division, to reinvestigate the matter afresh on the basis of the complaint given by the petitioner.

The Revenue Divisional Officer was also ordered to exhume the body and make arrangements to conduct another autopsy by a team of doctors. The IGP was further directed to depute the Superintendent of Police, Madurai, to supervise the reinvestigation and file a final report in accordance with law.