Among the following deaths, which one MUST be inquired into by a Magistrate under BNSS 2023 rather than being handled by a routine police inquest?

• A Death of a pedestrian in a road traffic accident on a national highway
• B Death of a worker in an industrial boiler explosion
• C Death of an elderly man at home following a krait bite
• D Death of a remand prisoner inside police custody at a station lock-up ✓

Explanation

BNSS Section 196, corresponding to CrPC Section 176, makes a judicial inquest by a Magistrate compulsory in specified classes of death: death in police custody, death in a psychiatric hospital or nursing home, death in a women's protection or rehabilitation home, dowry death within seven years of marriage, death during exhumation, and death by execution of a death sentence. Deaths from accidents, envenomation at home, or industrial mishaps are ordinarily dealt with by police inquest alone.

Reference: The Essentials of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, 35th ed.

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Written and medically reviewed by the StethoPrep medical team.