Photo by BL SONI Mumbai: There was outcry among victims, their kin and citizens over dead bodies being numbered. Dr Harish Pathak, head of department of, Forensic Science, KEM Hospital explained their position.
“When suddenly 22 dead bodies were received at KEM Hospital emergency ward and plenty of relatives were rushing to identify their next of kin, it would have been a big mental trauma to make all relatives identify the missing persons. It would have become chaotic and hectic exercise. Hence we took photographs of the corpses’ faces, numbered them and displayed it to the relatives on a laptop. Subsequently, the photographs were also displayed on a flex at the hospital, to further expedite the process and we could identify 19 dead bodies within 3 hours and started the process of panchanama.”
“After the autopsy, those numbers were erased before handing over the bodies. At no point, we intended to or planned to circulate those photographs in social media.Hence it would be unjustified and unwise to criticise this scientific method and handing over of dead to their relatives,” he added.
