Dhaka, Monday, 2016-06-03

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/06/03/32794/Post-mortem-reports-andcoroners

Post-mortem reports and

coroners
M S Siddiqui
The nation is in for a spurt in unnatural deaths. People are dying at places like
hospitals. They are killed in police firing and police encounters, and even at some
sensitive places. It has also been found that post-mortem reports are done in a way
that leads to acquittal in many criminal cases.
A judicial inquiry into an unnatural death is known as an inquest, which is a very
sensitive inquiry into the cause of a death. The medical investigation is a crucial
part of inquest that is done to know the reasons of certain deaths such as sudden
death, suicide, homicide, infant death, custodial death and those resulting from use
of drugs and poisons, abortion and operational deaths. Unnatural deaths are also
caused by medical negligence, industrial accidents, road accidents, domestic
accidents, etc. Inquest is a medico-legal autopsy to find the responsible aiding
investigation into sudden, suspicious, obscure, unnatural or other types of deaths
caused by criminals. The objective of inquest is to know the (1) identification of
victims, (2) identification of accused /criminals, (3) identification of suspected
weapons, (4) to document the cause and nature of injuries, (5) determine the
cause of death and (6) determine the time since the death.
There are some different systems of investigation in different countries and the
systems of death investigation are Medical Examiner system, Coroner system,
Police system and Continental system. In Bangladesh, police inquest and magistrate
inquest are there in practice. In the UK, Sri Lanka and some states of the USA the
medical examiner inquest is done.
The USA follows the Medical Examiner system, the UK adopted the Coroner system
and Scotland the procurator fiscal system. In Bangladesh, all unnatural deaths are
to be reported at the nearest police stations and a police officer should visit the
scene of occurrence for investigation and to arrange post-mortem, if required. The
forensic services of the country are delivered partly by doctors of government
medical colleges' forensic medicine department and the rest by the civil surgeons of
the district. The civil surgeons perform post-mortem by the doctors under him in
district hospitals. Medical examiners are certified eligible forensic pathologists. They
do the autopsy and correlate the autopsy with the evidence and determine the
cause and manner of death and submit the report to the district attorney for further

action. The most of the doctors have no forensic qualifications and are not paid
extra for this service.
The forensic test is mentioned in the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPc), 1898. The
Sec 509A states that in any inquiry, trial or other proceeding under this Code, the
report of a post-mortem is required to be used as evidence. If the civil surgeon or
any other medical officer who makes the report is dead or is incapable of giving
evidence or is beyond the limit of Bangladesh and his attendance cannot be
ensured without any delay, expense or inconvenience which, under the
circumstances of the case, would be unreasonable, such a report may be used as
evidence.
As per S-174 of the CrPC, 1898, sub-sec 3,4, modified in 1995, (1) the police
officer of a police station or any other empowered police officer conducts an
inquest. On receiving the information that a person (a) has committed suicide or
(b) has been killed by another or by an animal or by machinery or in an accident or
(c) has died under circumstances raising reasonable suspicion that some other
persons might have committed an offence, he shall immediately give information
thereof to the concerned magistrate and shall proceed to the place where the body
of such a deceased person is. There in the presence of two or more respectable
inhabitants of the neighbourhood, he shall make an investigation and draw up a
report of the apparent cause of death, describing such wounds, fractures, bruises
and other marks of injury, as may be found on the body, and stating in what
manner or by what weapon or instrument (if any) such marks appear to have been
inflicted.
In case of re-examining the death body for identification, the nearest civil surgeon
or other qualified medical doctors of forensic medicine of government medical
colleges will do it. It is a matter of regret that there is no provision of fee or
allowances for post-mortem examination and medico-legal work in Bangladesh,
which is present in every country of the world.
The custodial death is one of the major issues in Bangladesh. As per S-176, (1),
when any person dies in the custody of the police, the nearest magistrate
empowered to hold inquests shall hold, and, in any other case mentioned in section
174, clauses (a), (b) and (c) of sub-section (1) any magistrate so empowered may
hold, an inquiry into the cause of death either instead of, or in addition to, the
investigation held by the police-officer. And if he does so, he shall have all the
powers for conducting it which he would have in holding an inquiry into an offence.
The magistrate holding such an inquiry shall record the evidence taken by him in
connection therewith in any of the manners hereinafter prescribed according to the
circumstances of the case. This is called magistrate inquest.
The coroner inquest is done by government-appointed coroners. They may not be
qualified doctors. The coroner, known since 1194 in the UK, is either a lawyer or a
doctor employed by the city or county administration to inquire into certain types of
death. The cases are reported to him by the police, the public, doctors, local
registrars of deaths.

Upon receiving a report of death from a doctor the coroner can decide not to pursue
further inquiry and request the doctor to issue a death certificate or can direct a
forensic pathologist to conduct an autopsy. If the result of autopsy reveals natural
causes, the coroner can issue a death certificate to the family for disposal of the
body. Or the coroner can conduct an inquest into the circumstances of death to
know where, when and how the person died. It also includes the autopsy by a
forensic pathologist. He investigates the following types of death-- (1) Where the
deceased was not attended in his last illness by a doctor, (2) Where the deceased
was not seen by a doctor either after death or within 14 days prior to death, (3)
Where the cause of death is unknown, (4) Where the death appears to be due to
industrial disease or poisoning, (5) Where death may have been unnatural or have
been caused by violence or neglect or abortion or attended by suspicious
circumstances, (6) Where death has occurred during surgical operation or before
recovery from anaesthetic. The coroner will make the report and the court will
decide the cause of death.
An inquest into a death must be held with a jury, if the senior coroner has reason to
suspect(a) that the deceased died while in custody or otherwise in state detention, and
that either (i) the death was a violent or unnatural one or (ii) the cause of death is
unknown,
(b) that the death resulted from an act or omission of-(i) a police officer, or (ii) a
member of a service police force, in the purported execution of the officer's or
member's duty as such, or (c) that the death was caused by a modifiable accident,
poisoning or disease.
In the USA, this system of inquest was introduced in 1877. It works under public
health department and can work independently. It has been gradually developed to
the present high-quality investigating agent on unnatural death. The medical
examiner should be an experienced physician in the field of Forensic Pathology. The
examiner's office is adequately staffed, equipped with modern instruments and he
gets adequate funding from the government.
This part of the world has some experience of coroner service for forensic
investigation. British India had the Coroner Act 1871, under the jurisdiction of
which, each of the High Courts of Judicature at Fort William and Bombay there shall
be a coroner. Such coroners shall be called respectively the Coroner of Calcutta and
the Coroner of Bombay. It had been adapted and modified by the Indian
Independence (Adaptation of Central Acts, and Ordinances) Order, 1948 for India
but Pakistan did not adapt the law. Bangladesh also did not inherit the coroners
law.
Now, Bangladeshi lawmakers may consider a law on inquest into unnatural deaths
to determine who will investigate and how. We may enact a coroner law in
consideration of the present state of investigation. It will help conduct well-

regulated and modified inquest with a reform in the existing system.

The writer is a Legal Economist. Email: shah@banglachemical.com