The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Many ends remain unknown

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Saturday, Aug 23, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Many ends remain unknown

Railway police plan a database of unidentified dead persons hoping to establish their identities, writes
R. Rajaram

On Friday morning, the Government Railway Police (GRP) at Tiruchi Junction received information of a woman’s body lying beside the railway track between Mutharasanallur and Kambarasampettai.

And on reaching the spot, a few kilometres from the city, in the Tiruchi – Fort broad gauge section, the GRP personnel found the face of the unidentified woman, aged around 40 years, slightly disfigured. The photograph and fingerprints were take n and the body, which had fallen down from a moving train, was immediately sent to the mortuary. Hours after the incident, the identity was established through her relatives.

Though the GRP was able to ascertain the identity of the victim this time immediately, there have been several instances where it could not establish the identity of those found dead on railway tracks and on railway premises despite making out the cause of death.

The GRP, Tiruchi District, comes across cases of accidental deaths, suicides and natural deaths in its vast jurisdiction that starts from Villupuram and goes down south up to Kanyakumari.

Of the total 330 cases (accidental deaths, suicides and natural deaths all put together) reported in GRP, Tiruchi District limits, over the past seven months, the identities of 98 dead persons, including 18 women, could not be established till now.

Railway Police sources here say 185 “accidental death” cases were reported in GRP, Tiruchi District jurisdiction, from January to July. Of these, the identities of 49 persons including nine women was yet to be established.

Investigators say the photograph of the unidentified dead persons are given to media as well as to the police stations in an effort to ascertain the identity.

The finger prints lifted from the deceased is sent to the Single Digit Finger Print Record Bureau at Chennai and Tiruchi to find out whether the body found was that of any criminal or an anti-social element. The clothes and other things if any recovered from the deceased is preserved and shown to those who come in search of their missing near ones.

There have been occasions when identity of the deceased had been established after the photograph appeared in the media. The GRP authorities cite a recent example of a Chennai-based man who died after falling down from a train at Vaiyampatti, recently.

After completing the necessary formalities, the unidentified body was kept in the mortuary for few days and later buried after a post mortem.

However, the identity was established when the relatives on seeing the photographs approached the Railway Police Tiruchi, says an officer here.

Investigators say it was a challenging task for them to establish the identity if the face was totally disfigured or the body was that of a beggar. The unidentified body would be kept in the mortuary for a maximum period of three days and later buried after a post mortem, says the officer.

The Railway Police have planned to incorporate the database of unidentified dead persons run over by trains in the comprehensive website which it has planned to create with a hope that their identities could be established at some point of time in future, the sources added.

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