HC closes suo motu petition on death of disabled activist

The Madras High Court today closed a suo motu petition on the recent death of a 72-year-old disabled person during a protest in Chennai after the police submitted that he died of natural causes.
Police in its status report, filed in response to the court's earlier directive, submitted the post mortem report clearly stated that Kuppusamy died due to the effect of intracranial hemorrhage of natural causes.
The first bench, headed by Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, which had taken suo motu cognizance of the news item published in a Tamil daily about the death, closed the matter saying no other material had been brought to its notice other than the press report.

"In view of the aforesaid position, we close the proceedings," it said.
The status report, filed by the Joint Commissioner of Police, said the Tamil Nadu Association for the rights of all types of differently-abled and caregivers took out a protest with a view to laying siege to the Secretariat on February 17 last obstructing the traffic.
Subsequently, the agitators were shifted from the scene in batches and detained at a marriage hall and were later let off in the evening, it added.
The entire agitation was videographed and photographs were also taken.