Hyderabad: In a significant order, Hyderabad High Court has directed DGPs of twin states to order investigation officers to collect samples of hair, tissues and blood from dead bodies in medico-legal cases and send them for DNA tests to identify the victims.
While acquitting a life convict in a case of killing a woman, a division bench comprising of Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar and Justice Shameem Akhter made the order.
In the case in question, there were no witnesses to identify the victim, whose body was found floating in a well in a highly decomposed state and the investigation officer did not collect body samples either. Hence the bench felt that if the samples were collected, possibility of identifying the body would have increased.
These tests are useful in various criminal investigations involving offences like rape, murder, kidnapping, exchange of babies, infanticide, abandonment of newborn child, illegal abortion, paternity related disputes, immigration, inheritance, assignation etc.