Bereaved father seeks guidelines on disposal of unattended bodies

New Delhi, Jan 22 (IANS) The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the Delhi government to file response on a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking framing of guidelines on disposal of abandoned bodies and for carrying out complete videography and photography of the last rites of the unattended dead bodies.

A division bench of justices S. Ravindra Bhat and Prateek Jalan was hearing a petition filed by Ramanuj Pursotam whose son's body was disposed of by Faridabad police and nothing was kept as proof of that body, not even clothes.

Pursotam's counsels advocate Shashank Deo Sudhi and Bijender P. Kumar told the court that his son was missing since December 4, 2017. After three months, the petitioner came to know through photographs that his son's dead body had been disposed of.

In March 2018, the police called Pursotam for identifying the photograph of the body which was disposed of on December 12, 2017.

The police told him that his son body was recovered on December 8 and an autopsy was conducted at a hospital in Faridabad on December 10, 2017.

But Pursotam was not told how the body of his son was disposed of.

He pleaded before the court to issue direction to the police to preserve at least the ashes and physical identity, including the clothes and valuable belongings, of the abandoned dead bodies for a reasonable period of time for handing over the same to the families of the deceased.

He requested the court to issue direction to publicise or advertise the request for identification of the abandoned bodies lying unattended in mysterious circumstances through all modes of communication including all major newspapers and news channels.

He also told the court that currently, bodies are being disposed of in a mechanical manner without completing even the mandatory formalities.

He also sought formation of provision to penalise the police if they deny registering the FIR in case of such incidents.

After the son of Pursotam went missing on December 4, 2017, he went to Jaitpur Police Station in the national capital on December 6, 2017, and reported the incident but the police did not act.

Thereafter, the petitioner continued visiting the police station and kept searching his son in whatever way possible.

Despite his repeated requests, the police did not even register a complaint, said the petition.

"The police of the state refuse to register FIRs even in serious matters which resulted in the murder of the complainant's son and the case of the petitioner is one of those where police showed extreme disregard for human life," it said.

"It is submitted that insensitivity of the Delhi Police in handling the cases of poor people is apparent which resulted in the death of young child whose age was hardly 20 years."