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Medicolegal Death Investigation
Bangladesh
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Death Registration
Declaration and Notification
Informants
Who is designated as the primary informant for unnatural or suspicious deaths?
Nearest relative
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
To ensure that unnatural and suspicious deaths are registered, legislation should clearly specify who is responsible for reporting the death to the registrar. The primary informant for an unnatural or suspicious death should be an officer of the mediolegal system, regardless of whether the death occurred with or without medical supervision.
Such officers may include: coroners, medical examiners, police or other medicolegal officers. Responsibility should not be placed on the family, as that may result in the death not being declared to the registrar.
The law does not explicitly address reporting of deaths dues to unnatural causes. In general, the nearest relative is the informant in cases of unnatural deaths, just as for natural deaths. There are two exceptions to this rule. If a relative is unavailable and a death occurs in road transport, water transport, or airplane, the person operating the vehicle is responsible for reporting the death. If a relative is unavailable and a death occurs on the street or at an open place (whether natural or unnatural), the officer in charge of the police station having jurisdiction over the street or open place is responsible for reporting the death.
Death Registration
Procedure and Certificates
Evidence
What evidence or documents are required for on-time death registration?
Notification of death or other similar document
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
Registrars should require proof as to the veracity of the information to be registered. Proof or evidence required for registration must be sufficiently stringent to provide assurance of the accuracy of the information without being so burdensome as to discourage or prevent registration. Documentary evidence is always preferred. Ideally all deaths will have an accurate, detailed medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD). However, in many contexts this will not be possilbe. Lack of MCCD should not prevent death registration; evidence of fact of death should be sufficient to register death. Evidence of fact of death could be a notification of death or other similar document, Witness Statement or other similar evidence.
For death registration, the Birth and Death Registration Rules require the following documentation: (A) Death Certificate from the concerned medical institution or physician; Or (B) Certificate from the concerned health worker; Or (C) Attested copy of the autopsy report of the deceased person; Or (D) Copy of the burial or funeral receipts provided by the caretaker at the respective graveyard or cemetery; Or (E) Death Certificate provided by the concerned Member of the Union Council or Municipality or the Councilor of the City Corporation, or, that provided by the Cantonment Executive Officer in case of Cantonment Board; Or (F) Death Certificate provided by the Muslim religious leader performing the Muslim funeral rituals for the deceased, and the priest or the person performing the obsequies (funeral) function in case of other religions; (G) Copy of other documents relating to the death of the deceased person, as discerned and required by the Registrar, in case the certificates in Clauses (A) to (F) are unavailable; (H) Birth Registration Certificate of the deceased person; And (I) Copy of the Birth Registration Certificate or National ID of the person applying for Death Registration.
Death Registration
Medicolegal Death Investigations
Medicolegal Death Investigations Authority
Does the law clearly state what types of cases must be referred to the MLDI authority and is this in accordance with international guidance?
Yes
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
Deaths due to known or suspected unnatural or external causes should be referred to the Medicolegal Death Investigation (MLDI) authority. This includes deaths due to violence, injury, self-harm, suspicious causes, and sudden, unexplained or unexpected deaths. The types of cases that must be report to the MLDI system are usually contained in a code of criminal procedure, rather than in the civil registration law .
The law does not explicitly state what cases must be referred to the police. However the police must report a death to the nearest executive magistrate on receiving information that a person: a) as committed suicide, or b) has been killed by another, or by an animal, or by machinery or by an accident, or, c) has died under suspicious circumstances raising a reasonable suspicion that some other person has committed an offense.
What type of medicolegal death investigation (MLDI) system does the country have?
Law Enforcement Led System
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
MLDI systems can be categorized into four types: law enforcement-led systems, coroner systems, medical examiner systems, and coroner/medical examiner hybrid systems. There is no best practice. All four types of systems are capable of providing quality information to the 5 MDLI questions: 1) Who died (i.e., what was the person’s name, if known)? 2) When did the death occur? 3) Where did the death occur? 4) What was the cause of death? and 5) What was the manner of death (e.g., natural, accident, suicide, homicide, or undetermined)?
Police lead the investigation in case of unnatural deaths. Bangladesh does not have a distinct, modern "Coroners Act" like some common law jurisdictions. Instead, death investigations for unnatural, suspicious, or sudden deaths are governed by Section 174 of The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, which authorizes police to investigate. However, the police office must inform the nearest Executive Magistrate of the death and provide a report of the investigation to the Executive Magistrate. Section 176 of the Code of Criminal Procedure allows (but does not require) the magistrate to hold an inquest "instead of, or in addition to, the investigation held by the police officer." The police officer has the authority to determine whether a post-mortem examination of the body should be conducted.
Death Registration
Medicolegal Death Investigations
Death in custody
Does the law mandate that law enforcement and/or heads of custodial institutions report all deaths in custody to the medicolegal death investigation authority?
Yes
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
All deaths in custody should be viewed as potentially unlawful or suspicious deaths and
should therefore be referred to the medical-legal authorities. “Deaths in custody” refers to those deaths in which the circumstances of the death place the decedent in either direct or indirect contact with law enforcement in such settings as incarceration, apprehension and pursuit. For deaths that occur in a detention facility, the head of the detention facility or the head of health services within the detention facility should initiate the process of notifying the medical-legal authorities. For deaths that occur during pursuit or apprehension, the police chief should refer the death to the medical-legal authorities.
Does the law clearly state who is responsible for medically certifying cause of death when deaths are unnatural or suspicious, or otherwise referred to the MLDI authority?
No
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
Deaths due to unnatural causes (such as accident, self-harm or violence); man-made or natural disasters; suspicious causes, or where CoD cannot be determined by the attending physician should be referred to the Medicolegal Death Investigation (MLDI) authority for medical certification of cause of death. The certifier of cause of death should be the forensic physician working with the MLDI authority who conducted the post-mortem examination on the deceased.
The law does not address who is responsible for medically certifying cause of death, in any circumstances.
Law Source
Cause of Death
Medical Certification
Medical Certificate of Cause of Death Form
Is the same form used for all types of deaths, including natural deaths and deaths referred to MLDI?
Yes
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
It is recommended practice to use the same MCCD form which should be WHO MCCD compliant) for all types of deaths, including natural and unnatural deaths (and fetal deaths).
Cause of Death
Transmission of Cause of Death Data
Transmission of Cause of Death Data
For a death referred to the MLDI system, does the law specify how cause of death information is transmitted to the civil registrar and/or statistics agency?
Yes for transmission of information to civil registrar and statistics agency
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
The law should designate who is responsible for submitting the MCCD or cause of death data to the civil registration authority and/or the national statistics agency in cases of deaths investigated by the MLDI system. Responsibility may be place on the forensic physician that certified the cause of death or an official within the MLDI system, such as the coroner, medical examiner, or police officer. In some countries, this person will submit the MCCD or cause of death information to the civil registration agency, which in turn will submit COD data to the national statistics agency. In other countries, this person will submit the MCCD or cause of death data directly to the national statistics agency. The MCCD should not be given to the family as a means of transmission.
The law does not expressly address transmission of cause of death data. However, when a forensic doctor medically certifies the cause of death for an unnatural death, the health physician or facility staff enters the cause of death information into the online registration system, and it is therefore available to the registrar. The office of the Registrar General and the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics have a Memorandum of Understanding regarding sharing civil registration data, which includes cause of death data.
