Death is lonely biz for Ahmedabad cops

The city authorities have to deal with an unclaimed body every fourth day. And in most cases they end up performing the last rites of the deceased person.

According to figures available with the Ahmedabad Commissioner Office, 156 unclaimed bodies were found in the city for the period between January 2008 and August 2009.

"These dead bodies were never claimed and later their last rites were performed according to their religion. i.e if we found something on them to help us identify their religion," said a source in the commissioner office.

The source said that often mentally challenged people, beggars or those who live of footpath meet such a fate. Some unclaimed bodies are those of accident victims.

"Sometimes we give out photographs in the newspaper or electronic media to inform the deceased person's relatives," the source further said.

Some 92 unclaimed dead bodies were found in 2008, while 64 such bodies were found in 2009.  "On an average an unclaimed dead body is found every fourth day in the city," a police source said. "Many times the deceased are migrants from other states. Such people live a nomadic life and hence it becomes very difficult to find their relatives," deputy commissioner of police, Zone 6, Sachin Badshah told DNA.

Badshah said usually it takes the police some days to trace the relatives of such a deceased person. On an average, an unclaimed body is preserved for around 10 days in the mortuary of various hospitals. "We get many unclaimed bodies. Once the police procedure is completed we dispose off the bodies when intimated by the authorities," resident medical officer, VS Hospital DS Chandana told DNA.

"Usually a body is preserved for seven to ten days in cold storage," Chandana said.

The unclaimed bodies are usually preserved in Civil and VS hospital.