Dharmapuri youth`s death: Family demands second autopsy

Zee Media Bureau Dharmapuri: After the post-mortem report of the Dalit boy, who was feared to have committed suicide at Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu, claimed that the youth died of head injury, his family demanded a second autopsy for further information on the circumstances of his death. While the police have claimed that 21-year-old Ilavarasan committed suicide, the family of the youth has alleged murder. Following the controversy over the cause of the death, the Madras High Court has asked the authorities to preserve the body of the youth. According to reports, the court has said that a video of the autopsy would be shown to the family of the deceased and if they express dissatisfaction over it, the autopsy would be repeated. Though no suicide note was recovered by the police, the suicide fear was sparked by the fact that the death of the youth came a day after his wife disowned the marriage. Railway police had said his body was found along a track behind a government arts college in Dharmapuri. News of the boy`s death led to a tense situation in Dalit areas in Naickenkottai, with many of them thronging the Government Medical College hospital, where his body was taken. Dharmapuri Superintendent of Police Asra Garg had on Friday said Raliway police are conducting an inquiry and that it was too early to say if there any foul play. Police pickets have been posted in sensitive areas in Naickenkottai. Three villages of Dharmapuri district – Natham, Kondamapatty and Annanagar – witnessed violence following the marriage of Ilavarasan and Divya. About 296 huts belonging to Dalits were torched on November 7, 2012, after the girl`s father committed suicide. Several writ petitions were filed and the Court ordered a probe into rehabilitation measures taken in Dalit colonies under the committee headed by IAS officer Vaski, which submitted a 5000-page report to the High Court. Prohibitory orders have been clamped in Dharmapuri in view of the tense situation prevailing there after the death of Ilavarasan, police said. With PTI inputs