Kochi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has informed the Kerala High Court that the postmortem of P P Mathai, who was found dead after he was taken into custody by the forest department in Pathanamthitta, will be conducted again next week.
The division bench, including the Chief Justice, instructed to hand over Mathai's mortal remains to the family at the earliest after conducting the re-postmortem.
The HC on Wednesday considered a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Pathanamthitta native Praveen Kumar, who pointed out that the family was not ready to conduct the funeral even though the probe was taken over by the CBI.
Mathai, a 41-year-old farmer from Kudappana in the district, was taken to the Chittar forest station on July 28. He was found dead in a well that night. As per the preliminary post-mortem report, Mathai died due to drowning. However, the family alleged that it was a case of custodial death and said that the funeral will not be held until they get justice. The Kerala HC had last week directed the CBI to take over the probe.
The CBI will file a first information report soon and begin an investigation.
Steps have been initiated to conduct the re-postmortem of Mathai's body, which is kept at the mortuary of the Marthoma Medical Mission Hospital at Ranni in the district.
The CBI will form a panel of private doctors for this.
The order that the funeral can be conducted after the re-postmortem has come as a relief for the family.
The family's advocate said that they will decide on a date for the funeral after consulting with the CBI. And that this has been accepted by the court.
Human Rights' Commission seeks explanation again
The National Human Rights' Commission has shot off a missive to the district police chief, seeking a detailed report on the incident. The commission has asked the report to be submitted within four weeks. The action was taken based on a complaint by Dr Lijo. Earlier, the commission had sought an explanation from the police chief on another complaint.
