More than 600 unidentified bodies found in three months

New Delhi: More than 600 unidentified bodies were recovered from different parts of Delhi in three months. The city police said that they follow proper rules as per Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in the case of unidentified bodies and conduct a proper investigation to establish the identity of the deceased.

The Delhi Police data accessed by Millennium Post revealed that 623 unidentified bodies were recovered from different parts of the city till March this year. "In some cases, police were able to establish the identity of the deceased," said an officer. In the year 2018, as many as 2,991 bodies were recovered and in 2017 nearly 2,615 bodies were found.

Soon after the recovery of the unidentified body, a daily diary (DD) entry is lodged at the police station or post, and the concerned SHO/ACP are informed immediately. The body is photographed from different angles to ensure that the face and identification marks are captured clearly in the photographs. The body is then sent for autopsy to ascertain the cause of death. "The body is preserved for at least 72 hours in the mortuary and all efforts are made to identify the body. Wireless Messages are flashed to all SHOs, ACPs and DCPs in Delhi and to all district SSPs in India," police said.

Hue and Cry notices with the photograph of the deceased are pasted or distributed. The clothes, ornaments and other articles found with the deceased is preserved. Any birthmark, scar, tattoo mark, tailor mark on clothing are clearly recorded. "If the deceased is identified, his/her relatives and acquaintances are contacted to find out the possible reasons for the death," police said. Help of members of Eyes and Ears Scheme is also sought in identifying the deceased.

In many instances, bodies were found on the track and in some cases it was suspected that the person was crossing the track when he or she was hit by the train. In January 2018, as many as 73 persons died in train accidents reported from different railway stations in Delhi, of which 65 were males and eight were females.

In some cases, the identification of the body led to the murderer. In one such case happened last year, Abdul Hakim Ansari was arrested for killing his wife inside train. On July 7, 2018, a woman's body was found lying in a train coach at Old Delhi Railway Station. Police preserved that body as unidentified. After killing his wife, the husband thought that like any case of the unclaimed unidentified body, police would close the case. For further updates, the accused went to the Old Delhi police station on July 23 and was shocked that the woman's body was preserved by police and further investigation led to his arrest.