Unclaimed bodies at Mumbai mortuaries need clearance for disposal: Forensic surgeons

Unclaimed bodies have started piling up at city mortuaries and what is worse is that the local cops already overburdened with COVID duty have no time to clear them for disposal This is slowly becoming a major concern for forensic surgeons and staff working at the mortuaries as they fear getting infected and their pleas are going unheardThe city has 10 mortuaries Rajawadi Cooper Siddarth Bhagwati and JJ centres come under the Mumbai police surgeonrsquos jurisdiction four medical colleges mdash BYL Nair KEM LTMG and HBT Medical College are under the civic corporationrsquos jurisdiction and three centres mdash St George Hospital G T Hospital and Grant Medical College amp JJ group of hospitals are under the state government As per data each mortuary has unclaimed bodies anywhere between five and 40 awaiting disposal Some of the forensic surgeons and even staff at the mortuaries have already got infected with COVID19 Two forensic surgeons attached to the Rajawadi and Cooper postmortem centres are currently undergoing treatmentStill awaiting actionSpeaking to midday a forensic surgeon attached to a civicrun medical college said ldquoThe issue of disposal of unclaimed bodies has been persisting for quite some time and amidst the rising number of cases the local cops and even the senior zonal officials are not taking cognizance of the issue Last week our department had sent a letter to the DCP highlighting the issue of unclaimed bodies but we are still awaiting action from his endrdquoThe surgeon added ldquoEven the cops now are reluctant to probe the unidentified and unclaimed bodies Instead of registering accidental death cases under section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code the police are keen on handing over the bodies to relatives along with form no 4 for disposal We at the postmortem centres cannot certify such deaths especially if someone has died due to an unnatural cause An autopsy is a must Also apart from doing mandatory antigen tests we also conduct TrueNat tests for COVID19 The antigen test result may be a false negative but the deceased might still be a carrier of the virus hence a TrueNat test gives a clearer picture We conduct the postmortem thereafter but until and unless the police identify the body and grant permission for disposal it cannot be disposedrdquoIn decomposed stateAnother forensic surgeon from a suburban postmortem centre said ldquoWe have around 40 plus unclaimed bodies in the mortuary and some of them are in a decomposed state As per norms within seven days the police are expected to identify the deceased and the relatives as well The time period can be extended by another seven days but at least within a month the body should be disposed ofrdquoMumbai Police Surgeon Dr S M Patil admitted that unclaimed bodies were lying in mortuaries ldquoWe have about five to 35 bodies in the mortuaries under my jurisdiction and time and again we have asked the local cops to dispose them ofrdquoThe solution to this according to a senior forensic surgeon is ldquoThe civic body executive health officer of the city Joint Police Commissioner administration and Police Surgeon who is also the technical head for all postmortem centres in the city should come up with a concrete plan of disposal of unclaimed bodies at the earliest or else the situation will turn grim Unclaimed bodies are lying for months together which will eventually cause space issues health hazards for mortuary staff and adversely impact medicolegal autopsy work which is an area of concernrdquoWhen contacted a senior police officer said ldquoThe DCP operation is supposed to inform all police stations about disposal of unclaimed bodies The hospitals can make a police stationwise list of unclaimed bodies and send it to the DCP operationrdquo Attempts to contact DCP operation S Chaitanya did not yield any resultNamUs provides a ray of hope in USThe National Institute of Justicersquos National Missing and Unidentified Persons System NamUs is a national centralised repository and resource centre for missing persons and unidentified decedent records NamUs is a free online system that can be searched by medical examiners coroners law enforcement officials and the general public from all over the country in the hopes of resolving these cases The public can register to search and report information in the missingpersons database and can also search information about unidentified persons Law enforcement officials coroners medical examiners and other professionals may register to search and report information in the missing and unidentified persons database More than twothirds of the 10000 registered NamUs users are members of the general public