India is a developing country where over a hundred thousand people have no homes and the primary reason for the homelessness is migration from the nearby villages to the cities in search of better job opportunities. Many of these migrants have no close family and lack proper identification, so their bodies remain unclaimed when they die. An “unclaimed body,” as defined by the Delhi Anatomy Act, 1953, refers to a body not claimed by family or friends within a prescribed time. According to the Delhi police manual, a body is considered unclaimed after 72 hours, and the police are authorized to dispose of it.
Identification of these unidentified/unclaimed corpses pose a major challenge for the local law enforcement agencies in identification due to lack of funds and infrastructure and thus become an obstacle in solving the cases of missing persons. The police usually try to identify the dead bodies by advertising the information through Newspapers, TPM, Wireless Communication and recently through ZIPNET. The information used are traditional available forensic approaches collected through inquest like, photographs, scar, tattoo, clothes, height, weight, complexion, status of circumcision etc. Many bodies are found in advanced decomposition stages, and in mass fatality incidents, the remains are often fragmented, making identification difficult.
Police rarely investigate these deaths further unless it’s a selected criminal case requiring DNA fingerprinting. According to NCRB reports, 108,628 unidentified bodies were recovered in India between 2013 and 2015, with over 21,900 in Delhi alone from 2015 to 2020. However, many of those who are reported to police as missing are located within a short span of time. Many individuals remain missing more than one year. Many missing persons have met with tragic end such as homicide, suicide, accident or succumbed to natural deaths. NCRB report of India, a total of 2,90,439 people in year 2016, 3,05,267 people in 2017, and 3,47,524 people in 2018 have been reported as missing.
Around 40 countries have DNA database for missing persons. Establishing a similar system in India could significantly improve the identification process and lead to proper investigations. We developed Identification portal and DNA database for identification of unidentified bodies (UMID) as part of Task Force project funded by ICMR. Initially, it was focused on identifying bodies recovered from the South and South-east districts of Delhi. However, with the addition of six more centres, UMID has expanded its reach and applicability across the country.
We collect samples for DNA profiling (teeth/ bone/ blood/best available biological tissue) from all unidentified subjects during autopsy, after taking consent from the investigating officer. Following DNA extraction, samples are subjected to STR analysis for all received cases, and DNA profiles are generated according to a standard operating procedure. The phenotypic data collected from the investigating officer, as well as from the inquest and autopsy reports, is recorded in a pre-designed proforma and uploaded to the website. Later, the genotypic data of the deceased is also uploaded to the website and an automatic run is performed against the reference database to assist with further investigation and identification.
The phenotypic data of the unidentified deceased is available for public access along with the status of the genetic information of the deceased (DNA Profiling data is not accessible to public).