The Inquest

Key points

• • An inquest is an official inquiry into the cause and circumstances of a death that is sudden, unexplained, suspicious or unnatural.
• • Its purpose is to establish the identity of the dead person and how, when and where the death happened, not to decide guilt.
• • In India the inquest is usually conducted by the police (a police inquest) under the criminal procedure law (the Code of Criminal Procedure, now replaced by the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita), led by a senior police officer.
• • In certain sensitive cases, such as a death in police custody or a dowry death, the inquest is instead held by an executive magistrate (a magistrate's inquest).
• • Other countries use different systems, such as a coroner (a legal or medical officer) or a medical examiner, to inquire into such deaths.
• • The inquest may be followed by a medicolegal autopsy, ordered by the investigating officer, to find the exact medical cause of death.