Madurai: Alleging that her husband was shot dead by the Sri Lankan navy, the wife of a fisherman from Pudukottai district has moved the Madras high court seeking to perform a re-postmortem on her husband’s body.

Justice G R Swaminathan sought the response from the state government on a petition filed by R Brundha, a resident of Kottaipattinam in the district.

Brundha stated that her husband R Raj Kiran ventured into sea for fishing along with two other fishermen S Suganthan and A Xavier on October 18. When they were fishing, the Sri Lankan navy intercepted them for crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL).

When these three fishermen were trying to escape, a Lankan navy patrol boat accidentally collided with their boat to which the boat sank. As a result of the collision, the boat sank while Kiran fell into the sea and died drowning. The two other fishermen were saved and detained by the Lankan navy.

She stated that her husband’s body was recovered by the Lankan navy and postmortem was performed at the Jaffna Medical College Hospital on October 22. However, postmortem certificate was not handed over to the family.

Subsequently, the body was brought to Kottaipattinam port in a sealed coffin and was not shown to the family members. It was directly taken to the cemetery and buried within an hour.

The petitioner alleged that the photograph of her husband’s body clearly indicates that he sustained bullet injuries. Hence, she moved the HC Madurai bench.