The bodies of the woodcutters who were killed by the Andhra Pradesh police.

CHENNAI: In a volte-face, the Tamil Nadu government on Friday told the Madras high court that it could not perform re-postmortem on the bodies of six woodcutters, who were among 20 labourers killed by Andhra Pradesh police, without specific court orders.

Following this, Justice M Sathyanarayanan asked the petitioner woman, whose husband was one among the 20 victims, to move the Andhra Pradesh high court and get herself impeded as a party in the pending proceedings.

He then directed the Government Hospital in Tiruvannamalai to keep the six bodies in mortuary until further orders.

On Thursday, when a petition by victim Sasikumar’s wife Muniammal came up for hearing for the first time, advocate-general A L Somayaji told the court that the government had no objection to do re-postmortem, saying as to what purpose it would serve was unclear.

The court had asked government hospital to keep the six bodies in the mortuary till Friday and adjourned the matter.

On Friday morning, after the government expressed its inability, Justice M Sathyanarayanan asked petitioner to implead herself as a party before the Andhra Pradesh high court, which is already seized of the matter. Somayaji also furnished a copy of the order passed by the Andhra Pradesh high court on April 8.

The judge then asked the hospital authorities to keep the six bodies in mortuary until further orders.

TOI | Apr 10, 2015

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