30 April,2011 06:23 AM IST | | Sayed Roshan
Officials haul rotting corpse out of water, await post mortem results; claim helplessness in solving such cases as identification is almost impossible
The city police have their hands full, as yesterday the number of cases of decomposed bodies being found increased by one more. After a body was found in a train at Churchgate Station on April 25, this time a decaying corpse was found floating at Bandra around 9.30 am yesterday.
Police patrolling near the Bandra-Worli Sealink saw a body floating in the water yesterday while on their rounds and immediately contacted the Bandra police station and pulled the body ashore near Bandra Reclamation.
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Officials say that the pictures of decomposed body cannot be put up for identification and the hospital too cannot preserve them for more than 15 days
According to preliminary investigations, the corpse had decomposed making any kind of identification almost impossible.
The Bandra police registered an accidental death report (ADR), as the injuries on the body could not be determined. The corpse was later sent to Bhabha Hospital.
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However, doctors were unable to ascertain the identification. "The injuries cannot be seen as the body has swollen," said a doctor from Bhabha Hospital.
The body was then transferred to Cooper Hospital for a post mortem. Doctors at Cooper Hospital told MiD DAY that the body had completely putrefied and suggested that the reason behind the putrefaction was that the corpse was in the water for more than three days.
Confirming the news, Assistant Police Inspector R Suryavanshi of Bandra police station said, "The police patrolling the area saw the body floating and intimated us. We then sent the body to Bhabha from where it was transferred to Cooper Hospital.
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The body has not yet been identified. We will register a case after we receive the results of the post mortem."
Problems
While the city is on alert, after such cases have come to light in the recent past, officials say that they are investigating the cases but the rotting of the corpses act as hurdles to the inquiry.
Officials further elaborated it is not possible to publish the pictures of the dead and ask relatives to claim their family, as the decomposition affects the body structure drastically, making identification very difficult. Furthermore, hospitals keep the body for 15 days, as they cannot be preserved for long.
"The post mortem may reveal the cause of death but it is difficult as there are no clues in such cases," said a police officer highlighting the plight officials have in solving such cases.
In the past
On April 25, a semi-decomposed body of a young woman was found bundled inside a gunny bag on a train at Churchgate station. The police has registered a murder case but have made no breakthrough in the case.
On March 20, a decomposed body of an unidentified woman, about 35 years of age, was found on the tracks between Dadar and Elphinstone Road Station. The deceased was dressed in a blue sari with a red blouse and was around five feet tall. She was wearing six imitation gold bangles, a hair clip, a nose ring, chain and plastic sandals.
On March 10, a 30-year-old woman was found at Juhu and was dressed in a shirt and a skirt. According to medical reports, she was smothered to death but was not sexually assaulted.
On November 7, a body of a semi-decomposed man was found on the banks of Dadar. He jumped into the sea from the Bandra Worli Sealink after throwing a suspicious object into the water. The man was captured on CCTV cameras while walking on the bridge.
