Hyderabad: The recently inaugurated Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), the first of its kind in the country, is equipped to deal with the identification of unidentified dead bodies, which is now reported at a staggering 40,000, as revealed by a Public Interest Litigation.
Since the start of the month, Afzalgunj area, which covers Osmania General Hospital, has had one unidentified body found every two days so far, and the numbers go up around the city.
“If a body is found, we first file a case and send it over to the mortuary for post-mortem examination to know the cause of death and other details. The body should be kept there for 72 hours to see if anyone comes to claim it. If it remains unclaimed during the period, a letter is sent to GHMC regarding the corpse. GHMC staffers come once every 4-5 days to claim the bodies from the hospital,” explained an official from Hyderabad police.
With no database to link and document the details of missing people to unidentified bodies, many years are lost, and often families are unable to gain closure.
The missing people reports remain unresolved and the bodies unidentified.
The CDFD department will be able to use the DNA extracted from the bodies to create a profile of the individual. Dr Madhusudan Reddy, staff scientist and CODIS Administrator, CDFD, said, “We do not usually get bodies that are preserved. Multiple methods of DNA profiling can be done at the centre using latent DNA fingerprinting or even molar teeth profiling to gain a profile. The profile can then be matched with the family after a voluntary submission of their DNA is provided.”
In the past, the CDFD had provided assistance in identifying the suspects from attacks on army camps in Jammu and Kashmir, Bodh Gaya blasts and the Dilsukhnagar blasts in the city. The centre is now prepared to offer their expertise to deal with the growing number of unidentified bodies that have not been linked to either missing person cases or families to confirm identification.
Officials claim that the cost of testing is small in comparison to the benefits that DNA profiling can provide to family members. However, without the final say in the DNA bill, efforts to bridge the gap between unidentified bodies and missing persons in the state remains unexplored.
