Review Article DOI: 10.18231/2456-9615.2018.

0017

Identification of unclaimed dead bodies- A possible aadhar based solution

Arvind Kumar1, Mahesh Kumar2*, Rishabh Kumar Singh3

1
Professor, 2Assistant Professor, 3Senior Resident, 2Dept. of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology Indira Gandhi Medical
College Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, 1,3Dept. of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology Lady Hardinge Medical College
New Delhi India

*Corresponding Author:
Email: [email protected]

Abstract
Establishing the identity is the first step in any investigation process. Without this it is very difficult to proceed with the inquiry.
It is said that the dead speaks but we should be having ears for hearing; meaning we should be properly equipped and oriented to
make use of all the available resources for the same. The conventional methods followed in our country leaves many lacunae in
the process of identification and therefore many a times the dead body remains unidentified. It increases the burden of unsolved
crimes and the accused can easily get away if the identity of the victim is not established. Moreover it further dents the hopes of
grieving relatives. So it becomes more important to use the best of our available resources to fasten the process of identification
and make it more efficacious. One such method that can be used is AADHAAR by UIDAI. Making use of it will not only fasten
the process of identification but also make it more efficacious and accurate.

Keywords: Identification, ZIPNET, Facts, Aadhar, STQC, CCTN.

Introduction use of existing IT framework i.e. Aadhar, for the

Despite having registered Aadhar data for 89.2% of problems encountered during identification process.
Indian population, problem of identification after death Current practice followed by Delhi Police while
remains a chalange.1 A large number of missing reports dealing with unidentified dead bodies: As per The
are lodged in police stations of the National capital Revised Standing Order of Delhi police, in the event of
every day. Also, many of the dead bodies are recovered recovery of an unidentified dead body, the following
with no identification card/mark/proof found on them. steps will be taken by the Investigating Officer:
It is very important to make sincere and systematic 1. A D.D. entry should be lodged at the Police Station
efforts to trace out the missing persons and identify the or Police Post as soon as the information is
unidentified dead bodies. The overwhelming desire of received and the SHO/ACP be informed
relatives (from all religions and cultures) is to identify immediately.
their loved ones. All efforts to identify the bodies will 2. The scene of crime shall be visited by the
help. The efforts for identification remains SHO/ACP.
disproportionate, the apathy towards unknown dead 3. The dead body will be photographed form different
bodies can be felt through following expression; angles. Care should be taken to ensure that the face
“A case of unknown and identifying marks are captured clearly in the
Should somebody touch and try photographs. Photographs must be of high-quality
And listen to the silence of Hue and cry? taken on a superior quality digital camera. Where
Even the investigations are not taken up with moral so possible, services of a private photographer be
high. engaged so that high–quality photographs are taken
Cold room is getting up hot and dry which are lucid and clear when transmitted by
Even “72 hours” soon will fly. computer etc.
Should, only keeping a piece of bone considered as so 4. The dead body will be sent for autopsy to ascertain
high? to cause of death, duration since death, age etc. and
Or certified cause of death should be notified? if needed, Doctor/Medico Expert report be
Who is bothered, who and why an unknown have requested to preserve limb of the deceased for
died?” DNA purposes.
Grieving and traditional individual burial (or other 5. The search slip of the deceased will be prepared
means of disposal of the body) are important factors for and sent to the Finger Print Bureau to ascertain the
the personal and communal recovery or healing identity of the deceased from records of FPB. Even
process. Identification of unclaimed dead bodies would if the skin is contracted or wrinkled due to
also significantly reduce the burden of unsolved crimes decomposition, the search slip should be prepared
in a society. This paper highlights the existing practices and the doctor be requested to remove the skin. All
followed by police to trace the unidentified dead the 10 digits should be sent to the Finger Print
bodies, the lacunae thereof and the future solutions by Bureau.

International Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicological Sciences, October-December, 2018;3(4):74-76 74

Kumar A. et al. Identification of unclaimed dead bodies- A possible aadhar based solution

6. The unidentified dead body shall be preserved for should examine whether it is a case of homicidal,
at least 72 hours in the mortuary and all efforts will suicidal, accidental or natural death.
be made to get it identified. 19. If it is a case of cognizable crime, a case should be
7. Wireless Messages shall be flashed to all SHOs, registered forthwith under the appropriate sections
ACP and DCP in Delhi and to all district SSP in of law and taken up for investigation.
India 20. If the deceased is identified, his/her relatives and
8. Enquiries will be made at the place of recovery of acquaintances shall be contacted to find out the
the unidentified dead body regarding the possible reasons for the death.
circumstances under which the body was 21. A separate register of unidentified dead bodies
recovered. shall be maintained at each Police-Station. The
9. Hue & Cry notices with the photograph of the SHOs and ACP shall scrutinize this register
deceased will be distributed. frequently and ensure that all requisite steps to
10. Wide publicity should be given through the identify the body have been taken. Whenever
Electronic and Print Media. SCRB (State Crime required, they shall initiate further legal action as
Record Bureau) and NCRB (National Crime per circumstances of the case. 2
Record Bureau) shall also be informed about the Lacunae in the existing practice
recovery of UIDB (Unique Identification Authority 1. The photographs circulated through hue and cry
of India). notice printed in newspapers are generally of poor
11. The clothes, ornaments and other articles found on quality.
the deceased shall be preserved. Any birth mark, 2. The biological samples preserved for DNA
scar, tattoo mark, Dhobi/Tailor Mark on clothing, fingerprinting are generally kept in Maalkhana of
deformity on the body etc. shall be clearly the police station which has no facility for
recorded. preservation of biological samples.
12. All the articles found on the body and around shall 3. There is no guidelines for specification for the
be taken into possession as pieces of evidence. photographs (like front view/close up/shadow less/
13. In cases of hanging, the mode and the height of different view/ picture quality etc.) which is to be
point of suspension shall be clearly recorded. uploaded on ZIPNET3 (Zonal Integrated Police
Opinion of autopsy doctor on the load bearing Network which is a real time plateform for sharing
capacity of rope/cloth etc. use for hanging be of crime and criminal information among eight
sought. Also the autopsy surgeon be asked to asked member states (Delhi, Haryana, UP, Rajasthan,
to opine on the correspondence between the Punjab, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh).
ligature mark and the ligature used. Currently it has a record of 70105 un-identified
14. In cases of drowning, the depth of water and dead bodies. There is no linkage of data of missing
presence of nay foreign matter sticking to the body person with the data of unidentified dead bodies on
shall be mentioned. Autopsy surgeon’s opinion be ZIPNET. Delhi being the capital and metropolitan
sought whether the drowning is forces, accidental city, inward flow of people from all over the
or suicidal. country is seamless. Therefore the existing
15. In cases of poisoning, search for the container shall ZIPNET with only eight member states poses
be made. Vomited material stool, nails hair etc. considerable limitations on the identification of
shall also be preserved and sent for foreign criminals from other non-member states.
analysis. 4. Central finger print bureau (CFPB) only maintains
16. The District Missing Persons (DMPU) /Missing a database of fingerprint of criminals which uses
Persons Squad (MPS) shall be informed to check if Facts4 (Fingerprint Analysis and Criminal Tracking
any person of similar description is missing from System) which is an advanced finger print
any other police station. If so, his/her identification system. The search slip of the
relatives/acquaintances should be informed. deceased is prepared and sent to the Finger Print
17. If the body bears injuries, the autopsy surgeon will Bureau to ascertain the identity of the deceased
be requested to opine on the following:- from records of CFPB. However the fingerprint of
a) The nature of injuries i.e. ante-mortem or post- unclaimed bodies (which may not be criminals) do
mortem and whether sufficient to cause death. not find it’s place in the main database/repository
b) Whether the injuries are homicidal, suicidal or as this database comprise of only records of
accidental c) Whether the injuries are self- criminal.
inflicted or otherwise. 5. The fingerprints of unclaimed dead bodies taken by
c) Other queries can be added as per requirement in police at mortuary before the post-mortem are
the investigation of the case. usually of poor quality which is ink pad based.
18. Keeping in view the autopsy report and the These poor quality fingerprints have their own
circumstances of the case, the ACP, SHO and I.O. drawbacks like non-reproducibility and they are
prone to distortion over a period of time.
International Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicological Sciences, October-December, 2018;3(4):74-76 75
Kumar A. et al. Identification of unclaimed dead bodies- A possible aadhar based solution

6. CCTNS5 (Crime and Criminal Tracking Network payment issues related to transportation and
and Systems) is a mission mode project under the handling of the bodies. An instant lead may be
National e-Governance plan of Govt of India. It is available with the help of finger print scanner at
a nationwide networking infrastructure used for hospital side.
tracking of investigation of crime and detection of 4. Financial expenditure and man hours on unfruitful
criminals. Currently all over India 92% of the efforts on the above said efforts could have been
police stations are connected through this network. avoided.
Despite having centralised data base of crime, 5. Fingerprint based Aadhar authentication, if
criminal information along with criminal images available would be more reliable rather than
and fingerprints with advanced search capabilities, manual verification based on visual effects.
fingerprint of unclaimed bodies find no place in the Sometimes visual effects of the face may be
data base. distorted due to post-mortem artefacts/
decomposition/ injuries.
Future solution- use of finger prints through
authorised STQC6 Certified electronic device linked Conclusion
to Aadhar number for identification of unidentified Identification of the unidentified dead body serves
dead persons multiple purposes. Information technology based
Aadhaar is essentially a paperless online anytime- solutions like “Aadhar base STQC Certified finger print
anywhere identity assigned to a resident to cover his/her scanners” may be used in the hospitals as a suitable
entire lifetime. The verification of the identity is done replacement for traditional ways of identification which
online with the help of authentication devices which are more labour intensive and time consuming. A
connect to UIDAI’s Central Identity Repository and known person becoming unidentified after death, poses
return only a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response to the basic query- a serious question to the administrators of 21 st century
“Is the person who he/she claims to be?” based on the when we are riding in an era of e-governance.
data available with UIDAI. The Aadhaar authentication
service is fully functional and in use in several service References
delivery schemes across the country.STQC 1. [Internet] Available from URL;
(Standardization Testing and Quality Certification) http://indianexpress.com/article/india/aadhaar-covers-
directorate under ministry of Electronics and over-89-population-mos-kj-alphons-5089431/[Accessed
on 17-05-2018].
Information Technology, Govt of India provides 2. Revised Standing Order [Internet] Available from: URL:
confidence that certified devices are reliable, safe, and http://nlrd.org/wp-content / uploads /2012/01/MISSING-
secure and meets the requirements. PERSONS-STANDING-ORDER-DELHI-POLICE-NO-
Aadhar based STQC Certified finger print scanners are 252.pdf.[Accessed on 17-05-2018].
now a day commonly used by the private network 3. ZIPNET [Internet] Available from URL; http: // zipnet.in
service provider companies for biometric verification. / index.php ? page = un_ identified_dead_bodies.
[Accessed on 17-05-2018].
Presently Aadhar based identification has been 4. Fingerprint Analysis and Criminals Tracking System.
occasionally used by police for identification of [Internet] Available from URL
missing/ abandoned children7. Such devices may be http://164.100.44.112:8888/facts.aspx [Accessed on 17-
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identification of unclaimed dead person. Such kind of 5. Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & System.
[Internet] Available from URL: http:// www. Ncrb.gov.in/
arrangement would be advantageous in following ways.
Bureau Divisions / CCTNS/ cctns.htm [Accessed on 17-
1. It is quick, easy and handy to scan the fingerprints 05-2018].
of the unclaimed person/dead body which is 6. Standardization Testing and Quality Certification.
brought to hospital for treatment or autopsy. [Internet] Available from URL: http:// www.
2. The record is reproducible and permanent. STQC.gov.in. [Accessed on 17-05-2018].
3. As of now multiple agencies are involved in 7. [Internet] Available from URL: http:// www.
Google.co.in/amp/ indianexpress.com / article /
manual work like police taking statements, india/about-500-missing-children-traced-through-aadhar-
photographs, networking with different agencies uidai-4952719/ lite/. [Accessed on 17-05-2018].
like finger print bureau, newspaper agencies, NGO
and mortuary for preservation of dead body in cold
storage, maalkhana for preservation of
belongings/biological evidence for future
identification. Moreover states police are already
overburdened and mostly under staffed which find
less time and surprisingly less interest in
investigation of unclaimed dead bodies. Disposal
of unclaimed dead bodies also pose lots of other
challenges for police personnel like instant
International Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicological Sciences, October-December, 2018;3(4):74-76 76