Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 — Section 174: Police to inquire and report on suicide, etc

174. Police to inquire and report on suicide, etc.__ (1) The officer in charge of a police-station or some other police-officer specially empowered by the 2[Provincial Government] in that behalf, on receiving information that a person

(a)has committed suicide, or

(b)has been killed by another, or by an animal, or by machinery, or by an accident, or

(c)has died under circumstances raising a reasonable suspicion that some other person has committed an offence, shall immediately give intimation thereof to the nearest Magistrate empowered to hold inquests, and, unless otherwise directed by any rule prescribed by the 2[Provincial Government],3[*******] shall proceed to the place where the body of such deceased person is, and there, in the presence of two or more respectable inhabitants of the neighbourhood, shall make an investigation, and draw up a report of the apparent cause of death, describing such wounds, fractures, bruises and other marks of injury as may be found on the body, and stating in what manner, or by what weapon or instrument (if any), such marks appear to have been inflicted.

(2)The report shall be signed by such police-officer and other persons, or by so many of them as concur therein, and shall be forthwith forwarded to the 3[concerned] Magistrate.

(3)When there is any doubt regarding the cause of death, or when for any other reason the police-officer considers it expedient so to do, he shall, subject to such rules as the 2[Provincial Government] may prescribe in this behalf, forward the body, with a view to its being examined, to the nearest Civil Surgeon, or other qualified medical man appointed in this behalf by the 2[Provincial Government], if the state of the weather and the distance admit of its being so forwarded without risk of such putrefaction on the road as would render such examination useless. Officer-in-Charge of a Police Station, such Medical Officer on duty, or, as the case may be, Officer-in-Charge of a Police Station, shall immediately give intimation thereof to the nearest Magistrates Simultaneously, the Medical Officer on duty shall record the statement of the injured person immediately on arrival so as to ascertain the circumstances and cause of the burn injuries. The statement shall also be recorded by the Magistrate in case the injured person is still in a position to make the statement.

(2)The Medical Officer on duty, or, as the case may be, the Magistrate, before recording the statement under sub-section (1), shall satisfy himself that the injured person is not under any threat or duress. The statement so recorded shall be forwarded to the Session Judge and also to the District Superintendent of Police and Officer-in-Charge of the Police Station, for such action as may be necessary under this Code.

(3)If the injured person is unable, for any reason, to make the statement, before the Magistrate, his statement recorded by the Medical Officer on duty under sub-section (1) shall be sent in sealed cover to the Magistrate or the trial court if it is other than the Magistrate and may be accepted in evidence as a dying declaration if the injured person expires.]