A Digital Radiological unit has been arranged at the AIIMS mortuary here to facilitate doctors conduct virtual autopsies with the assist of high-tech digital X-rays which can identify even minutest clots and fractures to the bared eyes.

The technology of cutting edge is also quite less time draining and in cases, where only skeletal remains are recovered, it promises to be a benefit.

AIIMS Forensic Department head Dr Sudhir Gupta said, “The virtual autopsies are less time consuming as compared to the traditional postmortem and are minimally invasive allowing the body to be released for cremation or burial sooner.”

Dr Gupta added that it is amazingly helpful decomposed corpse cases where it is tough to ascertain the wounds or damages by visual post mortem diagnosis.

In his opinion, “The radiological examination can detect fractures and blood clots invisible to the naked eye. Often there are concealed fractures and injuries which are difficult to spot.”

He further said that even minor fractures like hairline or small fracture in bones with bleeding, which are symbol of antemortem injuries can be detected and can also be documented in the X-ray films form. These X-ray plates have complete legal evidential value.

Through this technology external objects like pellets and bullets are easy to be tracked, Associate Professor of Forensic Medicine at AIIMS, Dr Chittaranjan Behera says.

During post mortem, deeply lodged firearm pellets and bullets poses a great challenge with entering the body and get entangled in the bones and muscles while extracting. And these virtual films will show the accurate position of the pellets along with the bullets and thus could easily be extracted.

Dr Behera said, “If the extraction meant mutilation of the body, then the bullet doesn’t require to be extracted as the film will have the same evidential value as the extracted bullet.”