234 unidentified bodies recovered across Himachal Pradesh in 20 months

Tribune News Service

Bhanu P Lohumi

Shimla, September 18

As many as 234 unidentified bodies have been recovered in the state in the past 20 months, ever since the register No. 28 (meant for unidentified bodies, missing women and children) was introduced on January 1, 2021.

Fortynine bodies were recovered from Kangra, 44 from Shimla, 43 from Kullu, 20 from Baddi, 19 from Mandi, 15 from Sirmaur, 11 from Solan, 10 from Una, eight from Kinnaur, five from Chamba, four from Bilaspur, three each from Hamirpur and Lahaul and Spiti from January 1, 2021, till August 19, 2022.

The identification of these bodies would not only help family members in performing the last rites of the deceased but would also help in nabbing criminals in cases where crime led to death.

Over 100 bodies are recovered in different parts of the state every year, which remains unidentified as there are no documents or identifiable articles found with them and if limited access to Aadhaar is provided, bodies could be identified by scanning biometrics of unidentified bodies and processing them with Aadhaar portal pre-existing biometric details, said DGP Sanjay Kundu.

We had written a letter to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to work out a mechanism to grant limited access for sharing Aadhaar data with Himachal Pradesh Police for the purpose of identification of unidentified bodies.

The identification of unidentified bodies through Aadhaar data will resolve social, economic, cultural and emotional issues of relatives of the deceased persons and moreover this limited data access could also be helpful in reuniting the lost mentally challenged persons or minors with their families.

The police have traced 93.1 per cent of the missing children and 82.5 per cent of the missing women. As many as 2,284 women and 686 children went missing since January 1, 2021, out of which 1,885 women and 639 children have been traced.

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