Journal of Forensic Chemistry and Toxicology

Cervical fracture is a rare presentation in suicidal hanging but a common finding in judicial hanging where the person is dropped from a calculated height, resulting in fracture dislocation at the level of 2nd-3rd or 3rd-4th cervical vertebrae. In case of long drop hanging cervical fracture with or without dislocation is commonly found; possibly due toa greater tractional force due to longer height of suspension. We describe acase of an average built male weighing 72 kg who hanged himself by jumping off a roof top, with a drop length of 4.14m. On autopsy in addition to common findings of a hanging case, complete transection ofspinal cord and fracture dislocation of cervical vertebrae C2-C3 were found along with hematoma. In this case of long drop hanging, there was fracture of cervical spine with ligature knot being placed at sub-occipital position which is a rare autopsy finding.

Autopsy examination includes external examination of body including injury description, internal examination, formulating opinion regarding cause of death and time since death. This is associated with evidence preservation, sealing and handing over to investigating officer for further analysis. Though this protocol of autopsy examination is well known to Autopsy surgeons, but they do not realize its importance during Judicial Proceedings. The authors report a case where careful evidence preservation during autopsy acted as a major ground in the conviction of accused and description of injuries aided in the decision of the quantum of Punishment. This case highlights the importance of even minor findings of the Autopsy report and their interpretation and correlation with the circumstances later on during the course of trial. The autopsy report can play a pivotal role in deciding the guilt of the accused and quantum of the Judgment, so they should be written with utmost precaution while maintaining highest unbiased scientific standards.

A murderer may try several methods to dispose off or hide a dead body, so that his crime can remain undetected. The most frequently used methods include burial of corpse in an unusual or impervious place; charring the body beyond the state of recognition; dropping the weighted down body in the open sea or river; dismemberment of the body and further chemical treatment. Dismemberment is a relatively rare method in which, after killing the victim, the murderer uses a very sharp cutting heavy weapon (a saw, axe, meat chopper, etc.) to sever the limbs and cut the body into small pieces. This is generally done immediately after the crime, although a long time may pass between the two events. The dismembered body may then be further subjected to chemical treatment (acid digestion) that will result in non-identification of the deceased and hence non-discovery of the murderer. This presentation describes one such incident of dismemberment and mutilation of a dead body by the perpetrator, where the body was divided into 6 pieces and stored in a refrigerator, with the intention of disposing off the different segments in the near future by the perpetrator. Postmortem examination revealed the nature of weapon used to mutilate the corpse. 

Sewer gas (H2S) is a toxic gas generally produced naturally by decaying organic matter. Death in sewer gas poisoning is due to respiratory arrest. Acute exposure of Hydrogen sulphide causes cytochrome oxidase enzyme inhibition causing disruption of oxidative metabolism and affecting nervous system and cardiac tissue immediately. It affects almost all system like, CNS, respiratory, cardiovascular, renal, gastrointestinal, dermal and ocular system. The powerful effect of hydrogen sulphide over olfactory inhibition makes the people unaware to its characteristic rotten egg odour. Rarely hydrogen sulphide poisoning occurs by intention but most of the case is accidental. Hydrogen sulphide is highly toxic and flammable gas, and, because of heavier than air it is accumulated at the bottom of poorly ventilated and closed space. In India it is observed that most of the sewer cleaning is done manually and the workers are not aware to its harmful effect because of lack of knowledge, so they unfortunately comes under its silent dangerous effect. There are standards and guidelines for exposure of hydrogen sulphide at work place; if it is followed and proper safety measures are taken then incidence will be reduced. Here we are reporting a series of four cases of accidental sewer gas poisoning, the autopsy of which were done in our mortuary, AIIMS, New Delhi. 

Simulated or imitation forgery is one of the pervasive forgeries among the group of forgers, where genuine signature of signatory authority is available to forger and he attempts to execute by following the pictorial effect of the design of the signature by simply drawing the same. However, several factors are revealed during this act of forgery. Not every reproduction has a perfect evidence of poor line quality, retouching, and other “classic” features that may establish it as a fraud. Others, specifically those carried out when copying simple short signatures may have a line quality not very diverse from the signature and can be made without pen lifts, retouching, or tracing. In such cases, it may not be probable to opine with an extraordinary degree of confidence that the questioned writing is an imitation, but, according to its degree of inaccuracy, that exist, it may be apparent to postulate forgery.\

From the earlier times of espionage, invisible ink is considered to be an assured and significant device of cryptography. Even though the use of invisible ink has now been almost entirely taken over by technical cryptography or steganography, its history still remains exceptionally fascinating, and today researchers are trying to find out readily available compositions which can inscribe secretly and their respective decoders. The art of secret writing was probably proposed to create any written text indecipherable to a reader who could read the same only after applying certain decoding process to make the writing legible. Though, the methods of secret writing are abundant but this paper principally emphases on the application of commonly available items which could act as a secret ink and similarly other commonly available items which could be applied as their respective decoders.