Medical Jurisprudence And Toxicology

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MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE

Fig. 45.—Hanging: Ligature mark on the neck.
(From a photograph kindly lent by Dr. H. S. MehtaJ)

mark between os hyoides and thyroid cartilage, interrupted at the back. There was
no congestion or abrasion about its margins. Death was found to be due to forcible
crushing of the left testicle, and the body was suspended after death.

2. On June 14, 1946, the body of a Santhal male, aged 53 years, was sent to
Dr. Gopi Ballabh Sahay, Civil Surgeon, Purulia, for post-mortem examination with a
history that the body was found hanging by a rope and that his wife stated that the
deceased committed suicide by hanging. Autopsy revealed no external injury except
a continuous ligature mark across the middle of the neck. The tissues under the ligature
mark were infiltrated with blood. Another dry, interrupted ligature mark was noted
in the upper part of the neck, but there was no change in the tissues under it. On
further dissection extravasations of clotted blood were found in the subcutaneous tissues
along the back of the left arm, both shoulder blades, back of the right forearm, front of
the chest, front of the right thigh, back of the left leg and right buttock. The windpipe
was congested and contained the particles of undigested rice and dal as deep as the roots
of the lungs, which were congested. He gave his opinion that the deceased was first
belaboured with a blunt weapon on several parts of the body, and then an attempt was
made to strangle him by passing a cord round the neck, but before this was effective, he
died of suffocation from food particles choking the windpipe. These were vomited and
sucked in the air-passages during a deep inspiratory effort. The dead body was then
suspended by a rope to simulate suicide by hanging.

Homicide.—1. A prisoner who had been sentenced to three years' hard labour was
being brought from Scona to Patiala Central Jail escorted by an elderly police constable.
On the way the prisoner struck the constable on the head with the handcuffs on his
wrists with the result that he fell down unconscious. The prisoner then took the key
of the handcuffs from the constable's belt and set himself free. He then tied a turban
round the constable's neck and hanged him from a branch of a tree.-—Times of India?
September 8, 1987.

2. A girl, aged 18, was found hanging from the parapet of a bridge over a stream
in a kneeling posture. She was 3-5 months pregnant. The girl was pregnant by a man,
aged 23, who had tried to poison her by the contents of a so-called Indian "poison
bladder5* which contained in one 2 cc. ampoule 0.3 gm. of hydrocyanic acid in solution.
The girl inhaled the acid and immediately suffered from sickness and vomiting. The
knot in the rope was made in the same way as that of the halter of the cows at the
accused's home. The accused confessed that he had wound round the girl's neck, the
rope he had previously prepared and rushed her from the bridge and fastened the rope
to the parapet—W. Scnwarzacher, Beitr. Gerichrl. Med., 1931, XI, 48-53 ; abstr.: Deuts,
Zeits. i. d. ges. gmcMtl Med, 1932, XIX, 27: Med.-Legal wd Crimmolog. Reu., Jan.
1933* p. 85.