Kathmandu, June 3

The new penal code has proposed to improve collection of medico-legal evidence to ensure justice for victims of crime, but the government faces shortage of trained doctors to conduct autopsies.

Forensic expert Dr Harihar Wasti said there were only 50 trained forensic experts, but only 80 per cent of them were providing their services to the government.

In remote places and  in areas outside Kathmandu, autopsies are being conducted by untrained doctors. This means they  are not doing their jobs  properly and their reports are not adequately helping the courts to do justice in criminal cases, he added.

Wasti said there were only four places where forensic experts were posted. “The government can prepare watertight criminal cases only when it creates a division at the concerned ministry and forensic units in all government hospitals,” he added.

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Population Mahendra Shrestha said his ministry needed to allocate adequate budget, train human resources and set up a separate medico-legal team at the ministry to improve collection of forensic evidence.

“Unless the government reforms process governing medico-legal evidence gathering, victims of crime cannot get justice,” he said and added that the government had trained hundreds of doctors to conduct autopsies and complete other medico-legal processes, but trained medical officers changed their jobs after completing MD or MS degree.

“We provide training to medical officers who, after two years of service, often go to study MD or MS degree and after graduating from college, never conduct autopsies,” he said.

Shrestha said there was no scope for promotion for those forensic doctors who did not serve in remote hill districts. “All remote hospitals do not have postings for forensic experts. Dr Harihar Wasti, who became a medical officer in 1986, was promoted to second class officer only two years ago,” he added.

He said all hospitals did not have posting for forensic experts and since they did not have to go to remote areas, they did not easily qualify for promotion.  Shrestha said his ministry was discussing new approaches to fulfil trained experts in forensic sectors.

Shrestha said most of the district hospitals lacked mortuaries and those hospitals that had morgues did not maintain them well. “Medical officers have to conduct post-mortem on dirty floors or tables due to lack of mortuary,” he added.

Spokesperson for the Office of the Attorney General Sanjeeb Raj Regmi, said that the existing laws mandated that post-mortem report should be prepared by government hospital but the new Criminal Procedure Code Act, 2017, which will come into force on August 17, mandated that the autopsies could be conducted either in government or private hospitals which will ease the process of collecting scientific evidences during investigation of criminal cases.

Section 20 (3) of Criminal Procedure Code Act, 2017, stipulates that  medical report of death occurred under strange or unusual circumstances or was a result of an accident, suicide, or homicide has to be prepared by doctors of government hospital or experts designated by the government or licence holder doctors.