Narrow Polymorphism in DNA Profiling, a Challenge to Establish Individual Identity from the Bones Recovered Upon the Exhumation of Mass Graves

Identification of human remains is very important in most of the forensic cases especially in mass deaths/murder. Each medicolegal situation has its own characteristics and complications, the major complicating factors in these cases include delayed exhumation, commingling of skeletal remains and lack of ante-mortem information. This study elaborated identification deficit of the graves that contained partly fragmented commingled remains from one of the mass killing medico-legal situation that took place in India sometime back. The skeletal remains were exhumed from the crime scene and DNA profiling was performed to identity of the victims suing modern scientific tools; however, this case highlighted major limitations of autosomal DNA profiling technique, wherein, no specific conclusion could be drawn as the samples came from an endogamous population, limiting the evidentiary value of DNA profiling technique for personal identification.