mid-day impact: Mumbai police directed to dispose of unclaimed bodies without delay

Unclaimed bodies will no longer wait for weeks and months at Mumbairsquos mortuaries before cremation Spurred by a midday report the city police have in the past few days disposed of about 70 bodies few of them decomposed lying in morgues All 94 police stations in Mumbai have been told to treat unidentified and unclaimed bodies as accidental deaths and expedite their disposalIn its report lsquoUnclaimed bodies at Mumbai mortuaries need clearance for disposal Forensic surgeonsrsquo of April 21 midday had highlighted the sad state affairs over these bodiesSince the past three days Hawaldar D P Ware 52 and his two associates Manoj Valmiki 28 and his colleague Sunil Sharma 22 have cremated 30plus unclaimed and unidentified bodies With the new directive Ware and his teamrsquos waiting time at crematoriums has also come downWare who was recently promoted said they have been getting several calls from police stations in the South and Central regions for disposal of unclaimed bodies ldquoI am told that the directives have come from the police headquarters and hence the police stations are in a hurry to get the bodies in mortuaries clearedrdquoWare added ldquoWe have cremated and buried 33 bodies On Monday we disposed of 16 bodies including 10 from KEM and the rest from JJ and Sion hospitals JJ which has a hospital and police surgeon mortuaries will still have about 50 such bodies A small number is also pending at KEM and SionrdquoWare said since the directive is for the entire city bodies from Eastern and Western suburbs may also be getting disposed of Apart from a shorter waiting period and the freedom to go to wood and electricityfired crematoriums he is happy that his associates have now got PPE kitsDr Rajesh Dhere who heads the department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology at LTMG or Sion hospital batted for a permanent solution ldquoAn ACP level officer should be given the responsibility to clear disposal of unidentified and unclaimed bodies in 15 days if it remains unidentified or if the body is not required for any further investigation Within this time period the local police station where an accidental death is registered us 174 of Criminal Procedure Code should be able to identify the deceased and trace the relatives so that the body can be handed over to next of kin for the last ritesrdquo he saidDr Dhere who is also the secretary of Medico Legal Association of Maharashtra said inadvertent delays at present lead to such bodies getting stuck at morgues for monthsDr Shailesh Mohite the president of Medico Legal Association of Maharashtra said ldquoThe need of the hour is that the disposal of bodies should happen at police station levels by the investigating officer and the senior inspector or incharge of the police station should ensure the same is getting executed by his subordinate officerrdquoHe expressed concerns over the fact that some accident or suicide victims have been found to be Covid19 positive in Truenet tests In such cases one has to be extra careful with the disposal said Dr MohiteA forensic surgeon from a suburban postmortem centre said ldquoWe have 40plus unclaimed bodies in the mortuary Ideally a body should be disposed of between 1530 days but the city has only three hearse vans A delay will result in bodies getting decomposed which could infect fresh bodiesrdquo The surgeon added ldquoMany NGOs and individuals are willing to do the final rites of unclaimed and unidentified bodies with dignity for free The police can also use their services if a need ariserdquoPolice Surgeon and medico legal advisor to the state Dr S M Patil said he has received on May 3 a letter from the office of the Joint Commissioner of Police LampO on the immediate disposal of unclaimed and unidentified bodies ldquoAccordingly we have started disposing of several bodies In the next few days the pendency of bodies in mortuary will come down drastically It is unfortunate that a senior IPS officer needs to issue special notifications for something that could have been otherwise dealt easily by the senior inspector of each police stationrdquoDr Indrajit Khandekar Professor of Forensic Medicine at MGIMS Sewagram said inordinate delay over disposal is a violation of a 2013 Supreme Court order directing appropriate cremation or burial of unclaimed bodies He said ldquoVarious states have rules saying if a body remains unclaimed for 4872 hours then the authorised person shall immediately take steps to dispose of it as per rulesrdquoDr Khandekar added ldquoWhere investigation is required as per 174 of CrPC then a body can be disposed of after following the procedure prescribed in CrPCrdquo16No of bodies disposed of by Ware and his team on Monday