Sometimes, to give peace to the living, the dead would have to be disturbed, says Madras High Court
The Madras High Court oversaw a DNA profiling case involving the exhumation of a body to confirm the identity of a student who allegedly died in an accident. The court-ordered test confirmed the identity, despite the parents' initial doubts based on medical discrepancies in the postmortem report.
Why it matters
The case highlights the importance of forensic accuracy and the emotional toll of legal battles involving missing or misidentified persons.
The Madras High Court witnessed a poignant moment on Wednesday (October 14, 2026) when a couple waited with bated breath to know the results of DNA profiling done by exhuming a body from a burial ground in Erode city but broke down when they heard the judge read that the test confirmed the body to be of their son who was studying at National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela.
Justice V. Lakshminarayanan felt it very difficult to tell the parents that the DNA extracted from the femur of the body had matched with the DNA from their blood samples. It was a tough moment for everyone in the court hall, including Additional Public Prosecutor Arun Anbumani, to see the disappointment on the face of the parents who expected the results to be otherwise.
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