HC to view Dalit youth's post-mortem video

Madras High Court will view tomorrow the video recording of post-mortem of Dalit youth, found dead along a railway track in a tragic end to his marriage with a caste Hindu girl that had triggered violence.
A division bench comprising Justices V Dhanapalan and C T Selvam passed the interim order which also directed that the body of E Ilavarasan be preserved till further order, on a petition filed by his friend Ramesh seeking a second post-mortem.
The bench said it would view the video recording in the presence of Dr V Dekal, a forensic expert, a doctor of the petitioner's choice, a doctor from the premier central health institute JIPMER in Puducherry and one of the doctors who performed the first post-mortem on July 5 in the Dharmapuri Government Medical College Hospital.

It also directed that the petitioner's counsel and the Public Prosecutor and Additional Public Prosecutor shall be present during viewing the video recording at 10.30 AM.
Extending its earlier order, the court directed that the body be preserved until further orders.
23-year old Ilavarasan, whose marriage to the upper caste girl triggered anti-Dalit violence in three villages of the district in November last, was found dead along a railway track in Dharmapuri on July 4, a day after his wife said she would never go back to him.

While the post-mortem concluded that the Dalit youth died of serious head injuries, his family members and Dalit outfits have been maintaining that he had been done to death.

Meanwhile, another bench comprising Justice M Jeyachanderan and Justice M M Sundresh directed the head of Psychatrist Department of Dharmapuri GH Dr K S Ravishanker to provide counseling to Ilavarasan's wife Divya and her mother and brother in ten sessions in the hospital itself.
The direction was given on a PIL by advocate Jimraj Milton seeking a CBI inquiry into the death of Ilavarasan and to give police protection to the family of Divya.