AN ANALYTIVAL STUDY OF LIGATURE MARK IN CASES OF HANGING & LIGATURE STRANGULATION

Abstract

Deaths by ligation of neck are in practice from the time immemorial and before advent of civilization. In uncivilized societies, the application of ligation for taking away the life of another person was one of the commonest practices which were successfully carried out into the civilized societies. Earliest it was a homicidal method as suicide was considered as a heinous act. Ligature mark is a pressure abrasion produced on the neck by ligature material due to force either from weight of the body or external energies. More over the impression was ligation leads to wind pipe constriction for which manual violence is needed. When compared to other modalities of un-natural deaths, death by ligation was found world-wide popularity and is one of the preferred methods to take or take away the life. This study is conducted in the department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Gandhi Medical College & Hospital, Secunderabad. The period of analytical study of ligature mark in cases of deaths due to hanging and ligature strangulation is from Jan. 2012 to Dec.2012. The total number of autopsies done during the year of 2012 is 4950, among the total Autopsies hanging & ligature strangulations deaths were 522. A detailed study of these 522 cases of deaths due to hanging and ligature strangulation were analyzed with special reference to 'ligature mark'.