CHENNAI: The recovery of a corpse is just the beginning of a long process as the police try to trace the identity of the deceased. As soon as it is recovered, the body is sent for an autopsy, after which it is kept in the government mortuary. Police say that once a body is considered ‘unidentified’, the first step they take is send out all the available information on the deceased to police stations across the city/district, as well as the public through media sources. A photograph of the body with the face visible is usually part of the information given to the media. Basic information on the deceased includes gender, identity marks, clothes worn, age bracket, face and body structure, hair colour, complexion and height. Police station limits, crime number and section of law are also provided along with a contact number for the public to make calls if they know the identity of the deceased. “Such dead bodies are booked under section 174 CrPC and an inquiry is conducted. However, if wounds and bruises are visible confirming murder, then it is booked under IPC section 302,” a police official explained. Police say they get better results when private television channels air this information, as they have taken much of the viewership away from the government channels. Even days of screening details of missing persons in government channels does not get them results, the say. The catch in this situation? “Private channels rarely volunteer to give air-time for this type of public service,” says a police official.If a body is found in a train running from other states, it is a totally different task to identify the person, say the police. A communication is sent to the states through which the train had run and a fingerprint impression of the deceased is taken by forensic officials, which is sent to the State Crime Records Bureau along with other information gathered. The Bureau maintains a large database of cases of missing persons as well as of unidentified bodies. A verification is done to check on any relation between the unidentified body and missing persons. Unidentified bodies are kept in the mortuary for a minimum of three months as police try to trace identity. After this, the body is given to an NGO for mass cremation. “We do not have the necessary storage capacity in mortuaries for the number of unidentified bodies we collect,” says a police official. The NGO conducts funereal prayers of three religions before cremation. If the body is identified after it is cremated, the family of the deceased is informed of the cause of death and compensation, if any, is provided.
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