A woman from Pudukkottai district has moved the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court seeking conduct of re-postmortem on the body of her husband who died after falling into the sea when his boat collided with a Sri Lankan naval vessel.
The petitioner, R. Brundha of Kottaipattinam, said on October 18 her husband R. Raj Kiran and two others – S. Suganthan and A. Xavier – ventured into the sea for fishing in a boat owned by Suresh Kumar. Their boat was intercepted by a Sri Lankan naval vessel. The Sri Lankan authorities told the fishermen that they had crossed the International Maritime Boundary Line and were in Sri Lankan waters.
It was said that when the fishermen tried to escape from them, the Sri Lankan naval vessel collided with the boat accidentally. In the impact, Raj Kiran fell into the sea and drowned. The other two fishermen were detained by the authorities.
However, Ms. Brundha said a few fishermen who were only two nautical miles away on other boats told them that the Sri Lankan authorities had shot Raj Kiran and he fell unconscious in the boat. It was then that the Sri Lankan vessel collided with the boat wantonly.
The body of Raj Kiran was recovered and a postmortem was conducted at Jaffna Medical College Hospital in Sri Lanka. Later, the body was handed over to Indian authorities. But, the postmortem certificate was not handed over to them, she said.
The body was brought to Kottaipattinam port by the authorities. It was handed over to the family members. But the authorities did not permit them to take it home. It was taken to a cemetery and buried.
The petitioner said she perused some photographs of her husband’s body provided by the authorities and was convinced that there were injuries on the body. She said her husband was killed in mid-sea by the Sri Lankan authorities.
She sought conduct of a re-postmortem on the body and a probe into her husband’s death. Justice G.R. Swaminathan sought response from the State and adjourned the hearing till November 16.
