SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION - 7
WHEN THE BODY TURNS BLUE
-Dr. Anil Aggrawal
The police found the hanging body of Basesar at 7.15 am. on February 26, 1983. The body was naked except for a dhoti over his loins. The head was tilted to one side. The body was hanging from the branch of a thick fat banyan tree at the outskirts of his village. From a preliminary look one could say that he had been hanging for several hours.
His wife had been looking for him since the previous day. He usually came back from work at 5.00 p.m., but on the evening of February 25, he did not turn up. His anxious wife waited for him till 8.00 p.m., then made inquires from relatives. When everybody answered in the negative, she made a complaint at the police station at about 9.00 p.m.
To be sure, Basesar was facing several difficulties. Last year he had taken a loan of over one lakh rupees from the local moneylender against the security of his house and fields. He had married off his two daughters with that amount and had done some long-pending repair work in his house. He was sure that he would he able to repay his loan, but this year's crop was destroyed in the rain and he did not have enough money to run even his own house.
The moneylender had been demanding his money from Basesar for the last several days. Last week he had even sent two goons to him to terrify him into paying back the money. The moneylender had set his eyes on Basesar's property, which he could acquire at very cheap rates.
It was not hard to imagine that under such desperate circumstances, the aging Basesar had taken the extreme step of committing suicide. When Basesar's wife saw his dead body, she started crying and wailing. The police took off the body from the tree and then called for me to make a preliminary examination of the dead body and of the place, where the dead body was hanging. They thought that they could get some lead from my examination.
When I reached the spot, the body had been lying on the ground for some half hour. I looked at the feet and then turned over the body. The back was bluish purple. I pressed the back with my thumb for about half a minute, then removed my thumb and looked at the back again. Then I turned to the Investigating officer, Gajendra Singh, and said,
AIt's a case of murder and not suicide.Gajendra Singh was obviously taken by surprise. I had hardly examined the body in any detail. I had not even conducted a postmortem examination. Then how on earth could I say it was a case of murder?
Let us start the story from the beginning, reader. When a person dies, his heart stops beating and the blood comes to a standstill. Gradually this blood starts gravitating to the lower portion of the body. If you moisten a sponge thoroughly and keep it on a table for 3-4 hours, you will find that its top portion has dried while the bottom portion has become even more moist. What actually happens is that the water within the fibers of the sponge starts gravitating to the bottom portion of the sponge. After 3-4 hours practically all water has seeped to the bottom of the sponge. This makes the top portion dry and bottom portion moist after some time.
Practically the same thing happens in a dead body. All the blood starts seeping to the bottom portion of the body. After death, generally a body lies on its back, so all the blood collects on the back. This collection of blood gives a characteristic bluish purple color to the portion of the body where it collects. This coloration is known as postmortem staining or hypostasis (Figure 1). Those portion of the body which are in firm contact with the ground remain pressed and no blood collects there. So these areas remain pale. In Figure 1, one can see that the hips and shoulder blades which remain in firm contact with the ground are pale, but rest of the body has turned bluish purple.
Post-mortem staining or hypostasis can tell us many important points regarding a crime. Post-mortem staining (or p.m. staining, for short) starts to appear by about
2-1 hour after death and in 4 hours, it is quite well established. If at this time, one presses the area of p.m. staining for about 2 minute, the blood collected blood starts to clot. So after 6 hours of death, if one presses the area for 2 minute or even more, the area will not blanch. The p.m. staining is now said to be fixed. The fixation of p.m. staining appears after 6 hours. So, by seeing the p.m. staining and if it is fixed or not, we can say how long a person has been dead.P.M. staining tells us another vital aspect about death
- the position of the body after death. The blood will gravitate to the lowest portion of the body and stain it. Thus if the body was lying on its back, the back portion will get stained as shown in Figure 1. But if the body were lying prone, i.e. on its stomach, then chest and stomach will get stained. If the body were hanging as in the case of Basesar, then feet will get stained (Figure 3). On the other hand, if somebody tied the body by legs and hanged it upside down, the face and hands will get stained (Figure 4). It all depends on which portion of the body was lowest.If the body was lying on its back for say 3 hours, then the p.m. staining would develop on the back , but it swill not be fixed (as we have already seen). If at this time somebody turned the body, so that it came to lie on its stomach, the blood collected at the back would start moving to the chest and stomach, because in the new position these are the portions which are lying lowest. This causes the staining to disappear from the back and reappear on chest and stomach. This is called shifting of the p.m. staining. Continuing will our old analogy of sponge, if after keeping the wet sponge for 3-4 hours, you invert it, the previously dry portion will become wet and the wet portion dry, because the water will start moving to the new low position.
However when the p.m. staining has become fixed, then the turning of the body does not cause shifting of the post-mortem staining. It is because fixation involves clotting of blood and the clotted blood does not move. Thus if a body has been lying on its back for say 8 hours the p.m. staining would become fixed on the back. Turning the body over on its stomach now would not cause shifting of p.m. staining to a new area.
Now I must tell you what I found in Basesar's body. When I examined Basesar's legs, I did not find any p.m. staining there, which puzzled me somewhat, as Basesar had been found hanging. Then I turned over the body and looked at the back. The back showed p.m. staining. This meant that the body had been lying on its back for a minimum period of 6 hours, after which someone hanged the body to give the appearance of suicide. Since the p.m. staining has already become fixed on the back, it did not shift to the legs later on when the body was hanged.
From this examination, I could deduce the whole crime scenario in great detail. Basesar was murdered at least 6-8 hours before, perhaps 10 hours before. Then for some reason his body was kept lying on its back for 6-8 hours. Then someone hanged his body to give the appearance of suicide.
The police swung into action now. The local moneylender Dhanprasad denied any hand in the murder. Under sustained interrogation however, he did admit having sent his two goons, Kallu and Lalla to Basesar. But he reiterated that they had been instructed merely to terrify him into paying. Murder was never his aim.
Kallu and Lalla, when interrogated, denied all knowledge of murder. They said that on Dhanprasad's instructions they did go to Basesar at about 5 p.m. on February 25, but had merely enquired from him about the repayment of loan. They said that they had departed after half an hour when Basesar had assured them to do something regarding the loan soon.
However the police knew the blueprint of the story now, so they pressed them further. Under sustained interrogation, they broke down and told the whole story which was an eye opener.
On the evening of February 25, when Kallu and Lalla met Basesar at 5.00 p.m. he expressed his inability to repay the loan. Kallu and Lalla then took him to the outskirts of the village. The idea was to beat the hell out of him. However before they could start a beating, an altercation started and Kallu grabbed Basesar by the neck. In the heat of passion, he did not realize that Basesar by the neck. In the heat of passion, he did not realize that Basesar was an old and ailing man and the slightest pressure on his neck could prove dangerous. It was only after he felt Basesar going limp in his arms, did he realize that he had unwittingly murdered Basesar. Both of them now panicked. They did not know what to do. Lalla suggested that they should hang Basesar's body from the branch of a banyan tree. Everybody would then think that Basesar had committed suicide.
The idea appealed to Kallu. They did not have a rope however. It was decided that they would cover Basesar's body with leaves, twigs and grass, go back to village and bring some rope. When they were leaving for the village, it was about 8.00 p.m. They saw a big marriage procession coming towards them and gathering towards some tents which had been pitched to receive those guests. Doing all the gymnastics of hoisting Basesar's body up the banyan tree was no easy task, especially with so many people only a few hundred yards away. Anyone could wander towards the jungle and catch them in the act.
It was decided that they would wait for the marriage procession to dispense away and then they would start their work. It was nearly 4.00 a.m. on February 26, when finally the marriage rites were completed and everybody went away. Now Kallu and Lalla returned to the jungle and hoisted Basesar's body up.
So Basesar's body was lying on its back for almost 8-10 hours. This caused p.m. staining to appear on the back and become fixed there too. So when finally Basesar's body was hanged, the p.m. staining did not shift to the legs.
This little knowledge of p.m. staining could help me to unravel this seemingly impossible case in no time. There is hardly any doubt that without medical evidence, the case would have passed off as a suicide. The court admitted the medical evidence and awarded a sentence of 7 years' rigorous imprisonment to both Kallu and Lalla.
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