Mumbai: During the Covid pandemic, the disposal of unclaimed bodies had become a challenge for the authorities as at least 207 bodies were lying unclaimed in 10 mortuaries of civic and police surgeon-run hospitals across the city, such as KEM, Sir JJ, St George hospitals among others.
The bodies had been lying forgotten for at least six months until Iqbal Mamdani, former journalist, who now runs a trust, took upon himself to perform their last rites. Even after the pandemic, Mamdani Health and Education Trust along with other NGOs has been disposing of about 120 unclaimed bodies every month since January 2022.
According to Mumbai police officers, around 300 bodies are found across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, including railway police stations, every month. Of them, 60% get claimed by their relatives, however, 40% remain unclaimed, which are then sent to a civic hospital for post-mortem and preservation.
The police manual states that unclaimed bodies should be disposed of in seven to 30 days, but due to workload and difficulty in finding relatives, these bodies lie unclaimed in hospitals for up to eight months leaving no room for new bodies.
“We have disposed of bodies, which were lying in the morgues since early 2021. At least 98% of the backlog of the civic hospitals has been cleared. Maximum number of unclaimed bodies are reported by the Government Railway Police,” said Mamdani.
As per the procedure, the investigating officer contacts police stations across the country to check if the description of the victim matches any missing person complaint. A photograph of the victim is also published in newspapers and fingerprints of the deceased are also sent to the specific bureau in the Mumbai police commissionerate. Besides this, the deceased person’s DNA is sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Kalina, where it is preserved for at least seven months.
The officials said unclaimed bodies — usually victims of railway or road accidents and unnatural deaths — are rarely identified as the procedure takes a lot of time. In some instances, only parts of the body are retrieved. This explains why there are so many unclaimed bodies lying in the city morgues for the past year though there is a 2021 mandate of the commissioner to dispose of the bodies within a month.
“After a month, we start calling the investigation officers and ask them to send a constable for paperwork to dispose of the body. We then try to find out the religion of the deceased from his belongings or tattoos and perform their last rites. Most of the Muslim bodies are buried in the Marine Lines burial ground,” Mamdani said, adding that each disposal costs around ₹2,000 to 3,000, which is provided by the trust.
“In some instances, families also refrain from claiming the body. In a city like Mumbai, there are many who come alone to make a living and hence it becomes very difficult for the police to trace their relatives after their death. Many a times, elderly beggars are found dead on the roads and there is no one to claim their bodies,” Mamdani said.
“At least 20% of the people who die on the railway tracks in Mumbai remain unidentified or unclaimed,” said PI Sachin Patil, Government Railway Police (GRP).
In 2015 — the only official data available — Maharashtra reported the highest of 6,185 unidentified bodies, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The state was followed by Tamil Nadu (3,739), Karnataka (3,533), Uttar Pradesh (3,409), West Bengal (3,086), Delhi UT (3,063) and Gujarat (2,416). In all, the country recorded 34,592 unidentified bodies.
THE PROCEDURE
The officers said that after a case is registered by the police station concerned, the body is photographed and sent to a civic hospital for post-mortem. If the person remains unidentified, the police ask the hospital to preserve the person’s DNA sample and send it to the Forensic laboratory in Kalina.
Later, the police fill up a form number 4 that states that the body is unclaimed and since the person’s relatives have not been traced, the body should be disposed of. However, it takes months or even over a year for an unclaimed body to be disposed of.