Burning brides--a medicolegal study

A 'burning' topic in India is the burn deaths of young females. Such a way of ending life is peculiarly common in our country. Many young newly married females die from burn injuries, the most common reasons given in post-mortem reports therefore being that she caught a light (a) while cooking; (b) after an oil explosion in a stove; or (c) when a chimney fell on her at night. These are the usual explanations given in post-mortem requisition documents furnished by the police, but on enquiry from relatives and neighbours many were found not to be true. The article discusses the methods to be used in medicolegal investigations of burn deaths, summarizes statistics gleaned from police records of deaths by burning, especially those of 16- to 25-year-old newly married women, criticizes the blind acceptance of dying declarations by the courts, and highlights the magnitude of these problems.