Police to enquire and report on suicide, etc.

What this section does

When the officer in charge of a police station receives information about a suicide, unnatural death, or death under suspicious circumstances, they must immediately intimate the nearest Executive Magistrate empowered to hold inquests and proceed to the scene to investigate and draw up a report of the apparent cause of death in the presence of two or more respectable inhabitants. The report must be signed and forwarded to the District or Sub-divisional Magistrate within twenty-four hours. In specified cases involving death of a woman within seven years of marriage, doubt about cause of death, or other expedient circumstances, the body must be forwarded to the nearest Civil Surgeon or qualified medical person for examination.

AI-generated plain-language summary. For the binding statutory text, see India Code (official).

Procedure at a glance

Key actors

Police officer · Executive Magistrate · District Magistrate · Sub-divisional Magistrate · Civil Surgeon · State Government

Time limit

Report to be forwarded to District Magistrate or Sub-divisional Magistrate within twenty-four hours

Derived from CrPC s.174.