Delhi riots: HC directs preservation of DNA samples of dead, videographed post-mortem; Hospitals to not dispose of unidentified bodies

The Delhi High Court has today ordered the preservation of the DNA samples of those dead bodies in the mortuaries following the riots that erupted in the city's North East area. (Ansari vs State)The Court has also directed the conduction of videographed post-mortem of the dead bodies while directing the government hospitals to not dispose of unidentified dead bodies till further orders..The order was passed by a Division Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and IS Mehta in a habeas corpus petition preferred by one Ansari Mo Arif concerning the disappearance of one Hamza. .The Court also took on record the status report filed by the DCP, North East, Delhi Police in connection with the riots..The report stated that the body of Hamza was recovered from a drain within the jurisdiction of Gokalpuri Police Station. It was informed that subsequently, an FIR has been registered against unknown persons under Sections 147/148/149/302/201 IPC and investigation was underway..The Delhi Police further stated that the dead body of Hamza would be released after the conduction of post-mortem..In view of the submissions made by the parties, the Court re-notified the matter for March 11 and ordered,.In the meantime, the Government hospitals in Delhi under the aegis of both the Central, as well as the State Government, are directed to collect DNA samples from all the dead bodies lying in their mortuaries and preserve the same; and further to conduct videographed post-mortems of all the dead bodies lying in their respective mortuaries.Delhi High Court.The Court further ordered,.The Government hospitals are further directed not to dispose of any of the unidentified dead bodies, till the next date of hearing.Delhi High Court.The Petitioner was represented by Advocates Jayant Mehta, Surabhi Dhar, Burjis Shabir, Malvika Awasthi..State was represented by Standing Counsel Rahul Mehra with Advocates Chaitanya Gosain and Divyank Tyagi..Read the Order: