High Court takes suo motu notice of a woman having been allegedly murdered

The woman had an inter-caste marriage, and was found dead after being picked up by a gang. The court grants time till Wednesday for the police to inquire with her husband and submit a status report

The Madras High Court on Monday took suo motu notice of a mentioning made by a lawyer that a woman who had an inter-caste marriage was picked up by a gang from her residence at Vadapalani in Chennai and was later found hanging at Uthukottai in Tiruvallur district.

Appearing before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice K.R. Shriram and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, advocate R. Dakshana Murthy said the couple Naresh and N. Kamakshi were residing in Chennai with their five-year-old child and an eight-month-old infant.

He claimed a gang had abducted the woman on Saturday (October 19, 2024) and the next day, she was found hanging in Uthukottai. The lawyer also alleged the police were refusing to register a First Information Report (FIR) and no post mortem had been conducted so far.

Since the allegations were serious, the Chief Justice insisted on the presence of Advocate General P.S. Raman who appeared in the afternoon session and reported that there were only five female bodies in the mortuary of the government hospital in Uthukottai but none belonged to that of Kamakshi.

The A-G also said though a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) named Chandrasekhar had been accused of inaction, inquires made by him and State Public Prosecutor Hasan Mohamed Jinnah revealed that there was no DSP by that name in Uthukottai which was headed by a woman DSP named Shanthi.

The A-G said, the details of the case could be ascertained only by conducting an inquiry with Mr. Naresh and that he had already instructed the police to inquire him after providing necessary protection too if he was scared of any gang and also apprehensive of the safety of the two minor children.

Answering a question posed by the Chief Justice, the A-G said, the Uthukottai government hospital does not have facilities for conducting post mortem and therefore, in case of unnatural deaths, the bodies were generally sent to the government general hospital in Tiruvallur.

Since there was no record of any complaint having been lodged with respect to the alleged hanging, the A-G said, the issue could be resolved only by inquiring the woman’s husband. He sought a couple of days for filing a status report and said, no unclaimed bodies shall be disposed till then.

After recording his submissions, the Division Bench adjourned the hearing of the case to Wednesday.

Published - October 21, 2024 10:14 pm IST