Justification of medico-legal autopsy in conventional custodial deaths Dutta Sayak Sovan1, Mukhopadhyay Sandip1, Sengupta Deepmalya2,*, Bari Arijit3, Chattopadhyay Saurabh4 1Associate Professor, Dept of FMT, NRSMCH 2Assistant Professor, Dept of FMT, NRSMCH 3Junior Resident, Dept of FMT, NRSMCH 4Professor, Dept of FMT, NRSMCH *Corresponding Author Dr Deepmalya Sengupta, Assistant Professor, Dept of FMT, NRS Medical College, Kolkata, Email: deepmalyasen@gmail.com
Online published on 19 March, 2025. Abstract Background Custodial deaths may be defined as ‘death occurring while a person is in the custody of law enforcement officials or in a correctional facility.’ Medicolegal autopsy in custodial deaths, emphasized by NHRC, is crucial for justice and accountability. As per NHRC guidelines, videography is essential during postmortem of deaths in police custody however its requirement in cases of death in jail will be applicable only if the magistrate raises any suspicion of foul play in inquest or any complaint is made before concerned authorities. It is also evident from the guidelines that NHRC never states that death in Mental Health Care Establishments or in Homes will be considered as ‘Custodial deaths’ and postmortem examination under videography is not mandated in all such cases. However, due to some unknown reason we see all deaths in Mental Health Care Establishments and Homes where the patients were admitted under Court order, are considered as ‘Custodial deaths’ and sent for Medicolegal autopsy even when the MCCD mentions the cause of death as ‘natural’. Objective To find out the nature and cause of death in ‘Custodial death’ cases brought for medicolegal autopsy and to corroborate the cause of death between MCCD and autopsy to justify the necessity of medicolegal autopsy in each and every case of Custodial deaths. Materials and Methods Retrospective, Autopsy Record based study, all the medicolegal autopsies done on Custodial death cases in this Institute for the previous two years have been taken into consideration. Results Total 98 medicolegal autopsies of custodial death cases were done for the year 2022 and 2023. Out of these 88 cases died at mental health care establishments and other homes. In 84 cases death was natural with sepsis being the most common cause of death. Of the natural deaths, cause of death was mentioned in MCCD in 79 cases. There was 100% match in the cause of death as detected in autopsy with the cause mentioned in MCCD. Conclusion Despite clear guidelines from the NHRC, our practice has frequently involved unnecessary medicolegal autopsies, especially in mental health care establishments. This overcautious approach leads to the inefficient use of medical resources, delays due to the requirement of specialized teams, and potential decomposition of bodies awaiting autopsy. Top Keywords Custodial deaths, Medicoleagal autopsy, NHRC, Natural deaths, Mental health establishments. Top |