Car burning incident: Autopsy confirms victim was a man, DNA test to establish identity

The investigation gains importance in light of the fact that the car owner’s nephew, Vikram Kumar, who is expected to have been in possession of the vehicle at the time of the incident, has been missing since Saturday. It is being suspected that he could be the victim.

Suspense continued over the death of an unidentified person who was burnt alive inside a Swift Dzire car that caught fire near Ullahawas village on the Golf Course Extension Road on Saturday night.

An unidentified man was charred to death after a car caught fire near Ullahawas village on Saturday night. (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

Although the autopsy conducted by doctors on Monday confirmed that the victim was a man, his identity could not be confirmed as the body was charred beyond recognition.

The DNA and viscera samples of the victim will now be used establish his identity and to rule out the possibility of drug or alcohol use, said Dr Deepak Mathur, who conducted the postmortem examination.

“It appears that the body kept on burning for several minutes after the victim’s death. The body bore ante-mortem burn injuries and even the bones were broken. The viscera and DNA samples have been taken to rule out drug use and to establish his identity,” Dr Mathur said.

The police have started investigation under Section 174 of the CrPC. The police said probe has been initiated on the complaint of the car owner, Rajesh Kumar, who hails from Narnaul.

The investigation gains importance in light of the fact that the car owner’s nephew, Vikram Kumar, who is expected to have been in possession of the vehicle at the time of the incident, has been missing since Saturday.

It is being suspected that he could be the victim.

It is likely that the police will collect DNA samples from Kumar’s relatives to find out if the man in the car was Vikram or someone else.

Badshahpur SHO Vishnu Prasad, who visited the mortuary said that they were waiting for the postmortem report to get more information about the victim. “The deceased has not been identified. DNA verification will establish the identity of the deceased,” he said.

Since the body was found on the passenger seat, the police have not ruled out foul play.

The police are also trying to ascertain the whereabouts of Vikarm, who drove the vehicle that was registered with cab aggregating service Ola. He used to drive the taxi across Delhi-NCR and lived in Kadarpur village on rent.