Mumbai: A bullet’s path through a body, the depth of a stab wound or a hidden fracture — all could soon be examined without a single incision.
The proposal dates back to Nov 2025, when Mumbai police commissioner Deven Bharti approached chief minister Devendra Fadnavis with a plan to introduce non-invasive autopsies as a pilot project at either JJ Hospital or KEM Hospital. The scale of the workload is reflected in Mumbai police records, which show that around 98.5% of accidental death cases underwent autopsy over the past five years.
“They can help quickly determine the cause of death and allow for the speedy completion of forensic investigations,” said a senior police officer. The officer said police personnel would need to be trained to understand the reports and explain the procedure to families. A committee led by senior IAS officer Shrikar Pradeshi, with Shailesh Balkawade, additional commissioner of police, and representatives from the medical education department and the two hospitals, examined the proposal and recommended its implementation. BMC commissioner Ashwini Bhide was subsequently asked to oversee the project. Police officers believe imaging-based examinations could help speed up forensic investigations and reduce backlogs. The digital record could prove useful in court, too. Police currently rely on medico-legal certificates and post-mortem reports containing doctors’ expert opinions. 3D images could give judges a visual record of injuries that they can revisit during a trial. Guidelines would also have to be framed on how long digital autopsy records should be preserved.
An IPS officer familiar with the project said virtual autopsy could help the police not just with investigations but also in handling situations where families object to conventional post-mortems on religious or cultural grounds. It can help preserve the dignity of the deceased and respect the family’s beliefs,” the officer said. “One big advantage of virtual autopsy is that the body is not dissected.