Corpse key to Mumbai blasts?

Experts are busy making a model of a corpse they believe could be one of the suicide bombers, reports Anjali Doshi.

At Sion Hospital's forensic department, a team of experts is hard at work, creating what could be a breakthrough link in the 11/7 probe.

HT Image

They are building a clay model of Body No 41, a corpse that has been lying unclaimed in the mortuary for 35 days.

The corpse, little more than eyes and nose held together by a bit of skin, is decomposing fast. And the doctors do not want to lose the 'face' as the police suspect it could be one of the suicide bombers.

The model will be ready in two days and will provide the Anti-Terrorist Squad with a 3-D reproduction of the suspect's face.

"We reconstructed the face by wiring together 17 shattered bones," Dr Harish Pathak, head of forensic department, told HT. They established the victim's age (25-30) on the basis of the teeth.

Around 25 years ago, JJ Hospital had made clay models for forensic purposes. "We stopped as they were not admissible as evidence in court," forensic scientist Vinod Agarwal said. "But they do help investigators identify suspects."