Armstrong Murder Case | Madras High Court Orders Postmortem Of Prime Accused Who Died In Custody, Directs Forensic Exam Of Visceral Samples

Since Nagendran's family had raised allegations of poisoning by the police, Justice Satish Kumar has also ordered five visceral samples to be collected and sent to the Forensic Department. The court has also ordered that the postmortem be conducted by two government surgeons and overseen by Dr.B.Santhakumar, Dean (Retd.), Government Thoothukudi Medical College, Thoothukudi.. The court has also asked the entire procedure to be video recorded.

Nagendran was charged with offences under Sections 302 read with Section 34 of the IPC and was a convict prisoner in the Central Prison, Vellore. While so, due to certain health conditions, Nagendran's wife, Visalakshi, had approached the court asking him to be shifted from Christian Medical College, Vellore, to Rela Hospital in Chromepet, Chennai, for medical treatment and periodical medical review for redoing Living Donor Liver Transplantation (LDLT).

The doctors at CMC, Vellore had also informed the court that they were not equipped to provide LDLT at their hospital and that his condition had worsened since then. The court had then ordered Nagendran to be shifted to Rela Hospital, noting that he had previously undergone treatment at the same hospital. The court had, however, set stringent conditions on Nagendran. Nagendran died at the Government Stanley Hospital on 9th October.

Advocate Balaji and Advocate Mohan mentioned the case before Justice Satish Chandira on Thursday for urgent hearing. Raising allegations of poisoning, it was submitted that Nagendran was not transferred to the private hospital despite the order of the court.

The State counsel, on the other hand, submitted that Nagendran was not transferred since the doctor, who was treating him in the private hospital, was not available. It was submitted that the Private hospital had informed that they would provide assistance for the treatment at Stanley Hospital.

The court, after noting the submissions, ordered accordingly.

Counsel for Petitioner: Mr.S.Ananthanarayanan, Senior Advocate for Mr.Baalaji

Counsel for Respondents: Mr.K.M.D.Muhilan, Additional Public Prosecutor

Case Title: Visalakshi v. Secretary to Government