'If it is a situation where a body is 100 per cent burnt, turned into ashes, then there is a very less chance of getting a DNA sample.'
"There is only a rare chance of a body being completely burnt in this incident," Dr Rajesh Chandrakant Dere tells Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.
Some people may not be identified at all, correct? Some may be burned completely.
Yes, but then they have to search for other remnants.
In 9/11 some people disappeared completely and they found no remains?
There is only a rare chance of a body being completely burnt in this incident.
If it is a situation where a body is 100 per cent burnt, turned into ashes, then there is a very less chance of getting a DNA sample. Then we can only identify if that burnt individual had some prosthesis, say dental prosthesis, implant, which cannot be burnt. If that is available, then we can identify.
You mean like in the case of a fracture if they had a steel rod in a leg?
Yes. I have identified that in the past. In one of the cases, we had from the gardens along the tracks at Kurla, a body that was completely burnt. But we got an implant inside the thigh bone. From that implant we identified the distributor. And from the distributor we got the hospital name where it had been supplied. And from the hospital, we retrieved the identification documents.
Even if you have no body parts, if you have some sort of cavity filling of the teeth, or such like, it's possible?
It should be metallic. If it is a combustible material, it will give way (not be recoverable).
Not like a valve or stent in the heart?
In the heart there is nothing metallic. Although in a pacemaker there is an aluminum alloy but that can easily burn.
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff
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