Publish details with photos of unidentified bodies recovered from northeast Delhi: HC to police

The Delhi High Court Thursday directed the police to publish on its official website details of all unidentified bodies, brought to government hospital mortuaries following the riots in northeast Delhi, along with their photographs.

A bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and I S Mehta issued the direction while hearing a habeas corpus plea by a man seeking the whereabouts of his brother-in-law who went missing during the recent riots in northeast Delhi over the amended citizenship law.

The court also directed the police, represented by Delhi government standing counsel (Criminal) Rahul Mehra and advocate Chaitanya Gosain, to make "all out efforts" to locate and produce before it the missing person -- Hamza.

During the hearing, Mehra told the court that the Delhi government will facilitate the petitioner -- Ansari Mo. Arif -- to visit all the hospital mortuaries where bodies of people who died in the riots have been placed.

"The Delhi Police is also directed to publish the details of all the unidentified dead bodies that are lying in the various hospital mortuaries -- both under the control of the Centre and the Delhi government -- along with photographs and other details, including specifics of post-mortem and DNA samples, on their official website," said the bench.

With the directions, the bench listed the matter for hearing on Friday to be taken up with other similar matters.