A medicolegal case is a case of injury,
ailment, hurt or illness or death due to evident criminal cause or where the
attending doctor, on examining the patient, concludes that criminal
force/weapon has been used against human body and an inquiry/investigation by
law agencies is required in accordance with the prevailing law of the land. It is a legal duty of the treating doctor to
inform a medicolegal case to the nearest police station immediately after
completing primary lifesaving medical care. In accordance with Section
39 of Criminal Procedure Code of India, the treating doctor is duty bound to
inform the nearest police station as soon as he/she completes his primary
medical care. Phones/mobile phones can be used for informing the police in this
era of modern advancement in telecommunication. An acknowledgement of receipt
of such a message should be taken for future reference. If the intimation is
given orally or on phone, the diary number (DD or the Daily Docket number/name
and designation of police officer) should be taken down as proof of intimation
and should be properly documented in the patient’s records. The idea is to
initiate legal proceeding at the earliest so that the maximum evidence can be
collected by the police officer with minimum destruction of evidences, site of
occurrence, knowingly or unknowingly by any party. There is a quote in Bernard
Knight Text Book of Forensic Medicine that ‘the doctor dealing with
medico–legal cases should not act /behave like a detective; equally the doctor
should never act like curtain between police and patient involved in crime.'
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