Antop Hill murder: Surgical plate in leg helped cops identify victim

If not for a surgical implant plate on the left leg of the victim it would have been difficult to establish the identity of the dismembered headless body found at Antop Hill last month said forensic surgeons from Sion hospitalThe autopsy of Dada Jagdale was performed at the Forensic Medicine and Toxicology FMT Department Sion hospital and the implant plate was extracted A unique identification code and the manufacturerrsquos name paintedembossed on the plate had helped police trace the hospital and the surgeon who had done the implantldquoI was sure it wouldnrsquot be a routine autopsy when I was told about the incident The victimrsquos remains were brought in parts mdash torso two severed upper and lower limbsrdquo said Dr Rajesh Dhere professor and head of the FMT departmentDada Jagdale the murder victimScar on left legAn autopsy surgeon on condition of anonymity told midday ldquoThe left leg of the deceased had a big scar suggestive of previous surgery around the fibula sometimes called the calf bone It was decided to dissect the scar not a routine practice during autopsy and a stainless steel surgical implant plate was foundrdquoldquoAn identification number and the manufacturing companyrsquos name on the plate was a vital clue to establish the identity of the deceasedrdquoUsing the ID printed on the surgical plate police contacted the manufacturing firm and procured details of suppliers subvendors hospitals and surgeons to whom the implants with similar ID numbers were delivered Thereafter details of individual patients were meticulously tracedMeanwhile the crime branch was able to trace a probable suspect through their parallel investigation which eventually led to a suspected victim in Solapur This is where the information from the plate proved essentialAnother implant in armldquoDuring enquiry close relatives of the suspected victim confirmed that he had a surgical implant fixed in his left leg after an accident in 2018 Thus the identity of the victim was established Dada Ankush Jagdale from Solapur His family informed police about another surgical implant in his left arm The doctors then removed an intramedullary pin from the bodyrsquos left radial bone further confirming the identityrdquo the surgeon saidldquoA large number of fibular plates with the same Identification number was manufactured by the company Also there is no single authority registry record of such surgical implants in India In foreign nations a case like this would take minutes to confirm the patient details as each implant has a unique unrepeatable code along with central digitised registration of the same code A similar system like this in todayrsquos digital India must be a normrdquo said Dr DhereldquoWe have done similar autopsies in the past wherein unknown bodies with missing parts make identification difficult In such cases it is crucial that police send the remains to a medical college where the forensic team can go beyond the routine autopsy procedure and look for vital clues like dental or old surgical implants and help investigators identify the deceasedrdquo Dr Dhere addedA police source said ldquoThe surgical plate was one of the clues to identify the body We had other technical clues like mobile location etc which helped us reach the victimrsquos village in SolapurrdquoJagdalersquos remains have not been handed over to his family ldquoWe are awaiting the DNA report from State Forensic Science Laboratory Kalina which is analysing the deceasedrsquos sample with that of his father and sonrdquo police said adding that only when the scientific report confirms his identity we can hand over his remains to his familyNeedle in haystackNow the hunt is on for the missing head ldquoOur team along with the dumping ground contractors are looking for the head at Deonar dumping groundrdquo said Senior Police Inspector Indrajit More of Unit 4 crime branchldquoOn an average nearly 700 to 800 dumpers visit the dumping ground daily and nearly 10000 dumpers have emptied the waste here over a week It is like looking for a needle in a haystack Our officers and men are working and we are hopeful to find the headrdquo the police source addedImplant supplier speaksSpeaking from Ahmedabad Mayur Bathani proprietor of MS Image Ortho Surgical Pvt Limited the supplier of surgical implants told midday ldquoEvery manufacturer has its unique code and identification marks embossed on the implants It is to identify our manufactured implantsrdquoldquoWe usually keep records of three to four years and this Jagdalersquos implant was manufactured in 2017 Hence could easily provide the details to the investigating police team from Mumbai who visited us ldquoThis is the first case wherein our implant has been used for identification of a dead body by police As per our records we made nearly 41 implants in 2017 with similar batch codesrdquo said Bathani