SABINA BEGUM Vs. THE SECRETARY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Missing persons and unclaimed bodies are posing real challenge to traditional policing in the State. Immanuel, a boy of 18 year old was in love with a 16 year old girl residing with her parents in Cuddalore. This affair was not to the liking of the petitioner, who is Immanuel's father, as he felt that both of them were, too young and immature to take on life's responsibilities and they were also not of marriageable age. On 09.06.2013, Immanuel told his father that he is going to Cuddalore to meet his love and left the house. On 10.06.2013, Immanuel spoke to his father over mobile and said that he will return home in the evening. Thereafter, there was no news of Immanuel. The petitioner approached the fourth respondent police, who advised him to go to Cuddalore and lodge a complaint with the third respondent police. After being tossed between these two police stations, ultimately the fourth respondent police received the complaint of the petitioner and registered CSR No. 108/2013 on 20.06.2013 without registering a formal FIR. Since there was no progress in the investigation, the petitioner approached this Court for issuance of a writ of Habeas Corpus to the Cuddalore Police and Taramani Police, to cause production of his son Immanuel.

(2.) We ordered notice to the respondents and it was represented by the State that the Cuddalore Police have registered a case in Cuddalore Harbour Police Station Cr. No. 57/2013 under the caption "man missing" on 25.08.2013, based on the complaint sent by the petitioner through post. Therefore, by order dated 24.07.2014, we transferred the case in CSR No. 108/2013 from J13 Taramani Police Station to Cuddalore O.T. Police Station and directed proper investigation by them. The Inspector of Police, Cuddalore O.T. Police Station filed Status Report dated 02.09.2014, in which he stated that during the course of his investigation it came to light that an unclaimed body was washed ashore into Marina Beach in respect of which a case in D5 Marina Police Station Cr. No. 734/2013 u/s. 174 Cr.P.C. was registered on 10.06.2013. The body was photographed and sent to the Government Hospital, Royapettah, Chennai, where it was kept in the mortuary for two days. Thereafter, post-mortem was conducted on 12.06.2013 and the viscera was sent to the Forensic Sciences Department, Chennai for examination. The Post-mortem Certificate issued by the Doctor shows that the deceased appeared to have died of asphyxia due to drowning. The Inspector of Police, Cuddalore O.T. Police Station collected this information and with the help of the photograph of Immanuel supplied by the petitioner, he came to a prima facie conclusion that, the body that was disposed of by D5 Marina Police was that of the petitioner's son, Immanuel. Thereafter, the petitioner was taken to D5 Marina Police Station on 26.05.2014 and he was asked to identify the apparel that was on the body and also the photograph. The petitioner was satisfied that his son had died of drowning in the sea and on our directions, the police furnished him with the copies of Enquiry Report and helped him to obtain Death Certificate from Corporation Authorities. We would have closed this matter with this but for our observation that there is a steady increase in similar petitions before us where the police are able to match the missing person with unclaimed body only after a Habeas Corpus Petition is filed. We pondered over the plight of hundreds of innocent and poor citizens whose kith and kin would have gone missing but may not have had the wherewithal to invoke the Habeas Corpus jurisdiction. Therefore, we felt that a machinery must be put in place whereby even without approaching this Court, the aggrieved should get redressal.

(3.) An alarming news report was published on September 11, 2014 issue of the Times of India, which stated that six people die on railway tracks in Tamil Nadu every day and when we called for information from the Railway Police, we were informed that within the jurisdiction of the Chennai Railway Police, in the year 2013, there were totally 1868 cases of unnatural deaths, of which 603 cases related to unidentified bodies. The Dean of the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, Chennai informed us that in the year 2013, there were 2717 unclaimed dead bodies kept in the mortuary. In this very case, Immanuel went missing since 10.06.2013 and J-13 Taramani Police received his complaint and gave CSR No. 108/2013 only on 20.06.2013. In the meantime, the dead body was washed ashore on 10.06.2013 and after post-mortem, the body was buried on 08.08.2013. The Cuddalore Police registered a case in Cr. No. 57/2013 only on 25.08.2013. If these Police Officers had shown little amount of alacrity and registered a FIR on the complaint given by the petitioner for "man missing", the petitioner would have got the body of his son even before it was buried, because, only if a regular FIR for "man missing" is registered, will information be transmitted by the Station House Officer to the Crime Record Bureau, Egmore, Chennai and not when a mere CSR is recorded. The plight of the kith and kin of missing persons was taken note of by the Supreme Court in W.P. (crl.) No. 610/1996 on 14.11.2002 [Horilal v. Commissioner of Police, Delhi] and the following instructions were issued to the police: