The post-mortem examination of Ram Narayan, a Dalit migrant worker from Chhattisgarh who was lynched by a mob at Walayar in Kerala’s Palakkad district, has revealed the extreme brutality of the attack, with the doctor stating that there was not a single part of the body without injury.
Thrissur Government Medical College Hospital doctor Hithesh Shankar, who conducted the autopsy, said Ram Narayan’s body bore injuries from head to toe. His ribs were shattered, his spine was broken, and most of the wounds were inflicted using sticks. The doctor said the assault continued even after death.
“I have conducted more than 10,000 post-mortem examinations, but I have never seen a body subjected to such severe violence,” he said.
According to the post-mortem report, the cause of death was severe head injury.
Ram Narayan is survived by his wife, two young children, and his mother. He had arrived in Walayar about a week earlier in search of work and to meet his cousin Sasikanth, a mason working in the area. Sasikanth said Ram Narayan was planning to return home as he was struggling to stay away from his family. “He left for the railway station on December 17. We came to know about his death only on December 18, when the Walayar police called me,” he told reporters, adding that the deceased had his name and address with him.
Ram Narayan’s wife, mother, and children have since travelled from Chhattisgarh to Kerala.
Human rights activists in Kerala have alleged that there is a deliberate attempt to trivialise the killing and demanded that the crime be officially registered as mob lynching. Addressing a protest meeting in Thrissur on Saturday, activists said Kerala’s collective conscience had been deeply scarred by the spread of hatred.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.