Untitled Quiz

Medico-Legal System

• An inquest is a primary investigation into the cause of sudden, suspicious, or unnatural death.
• Types of inquest include police, magistrate, coroner, and medical examiner systems.

Police Inquest

• Conducted by a police officer (not below sub-inspector rank).
• Covers all sudden, suspicious, and unnatural deaths, excluding cases needing magistrate inquest.

Magistrate Inquest

• Conducted by a magistrate.
• Mandatory conditions include death in police custody, police interrogation, death due to police/law enforcement crossfire, death in prisons, police vans, reformatories, Borstal schools, psychiatric hospitals, deaths under police custody, dowry deaths, and instances where the dead's family loses faith in the police.

Inquest Report

• A report into the cause of death of a sudden, suspicious, or unnatural nature.

• Consists of three parts: Head/preamble, Body, and Tail.

• Head/preamble: Contains reference and particulars of the deceased (name, address).

• Body: Contains a description of the death and the deceased, with opinions on the cause, nature, and manner of death.

• Tail: Contains the signature of the investigating officer (IO), plus at least five witnesses' signatures (odd number).

Coroner's Inquest

• Conducted by coroners (advocates, attorneys, or magistrates with at least five years of experience).
• Empowered by the government to investigate sudden, suspicious, and unnatural deaths in Sri Lanka and Mumbai, India.

Medical Examiners System

• Conducted by board-certified or eligible medical examiners.
• Examiners visit crime scenes, investigate deaths, determine cause and nature, prepare inquest reports, and perform autopsies.
• Considered the most reliable system as one person handles the entire process, minimizing errors.
• Prevalent in parts of the USA, Canada, and Japan.

Chalan

• A government-issued tabulated and printed form.
• Contains information about the deceased and death, prepared by the IO.
• Uses a 10-column format.
• More important than an inquest report because it's a tabulated government form.

Medico-Legal Systems

• Types include continental, coroner's, medical examiners, and procurator fiscal systems.

Exhumation

• The authorized digging up of a buried body.
• Procedures include requisition from a magistrate or court, identifying the graveyard, specific grave, and confirming grave identification before opening it.

Exhumation Process

• Magistrate, doctor, and police officer must be present.
• Doctor's standing direction of wind, and collected soil from all around the body.
• Photographing the body before removal.
• Dead body identification to be confirmed by relatives or friends.
• Autopsy to be conducted at the morgue or at the grave site, as directed by a magistrate.

Medico-Legal Importance of Exhumation

• Establishing the cause of death.
• Determining the nature of death.
• Confirming the identity of the deceased.
• Recovering documents buried with the body

Scene of Crime

• The location where a crime has been committed.
• Vital for crime investigation.
• Includes cause of death/injury identification and accused identification.
• Members of the scene-of-crime team include a doctor, investigation officer, fingerprint expert, and photographer.

Tools Required

• Tools may include hand gloves, masks, magnifying glass, measuring tape, ruler, swab, cotton, slide, brush, chemical thermometer, and envelopes.

Roles of Forensic Pathologist

• Verifying if a crime has occurred.
• Determining how the crime was committed.
• Collecting and preserving evidence to help arrest and convict the accused.