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A 20-year-old female and a 45-year-old male were found lying dead on the floor with frothand vomitus stain present over mouth, nose and face in a closed room. An earthen bowl with incomplete burnt woods, flowers, food materials, agarbati, etc, was also found lying near the body of the two deceased. The cause of death, established by autopsy and toxicological examination was carbon monoxide poisoning in both victims. The source of carbon monoxide was incomplete burnt woods used for yagya during puja (a faith healing practice) for bearing children.

Death in custody causes one of the most embarrassing situation for the law enforcement agencies and medicolegal experts. The doctors has to follow the guidelines given by National Human Rights Commission while conducting postmortem examination in such cases and many a times doctors have been blamed for giving a biased opinion under influence to protect the interests of police and jail officials. This paper discusses postmortem examination in cases of custodial deaths and incidence of custodial death in India as well as other parts of the world. The cases of custodial deaths for which autopsy was conducted at AIIMS has also been discussed.

Fingerprinting is thought to establish the identify of an individual in forensic cases. The technique is extensively used for forensic purposes. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the vehicle of generational transference of heritable unit. While arching markers for genetic disease professor Alec Jeffreys discovered that certain regions of DNA showed variations in the number of tandem repeats known as variable number of tandem repeats (VNTRs). Thus DNA fingerprint was named by observing the number of repeated sequences which differ from individual to individual. The structure of DNA is quite flexible, within the nucleus of each cell resides an identical copy of the individual's genetic material, DNA. The coding regions of the genomic DNA are known as genes. The DNA fingerprinting in forensic science has generated considerable excitement in the criminal justice community. DNA fingerprinting can be applied to identify an individual in criminal and civil cases. Polymerase chain reaction has revolutionised molecular biology it has an ability to amplify (usually fewer than 3000 bp) a particular sequence of DNA into million of copies in a very short period. Consequently only a very tiny amount of an organism's DNA needs to be available originally. This property of polymerase chain reaction has enabled to analyse many forensic samples particularly which are degraded. Microsatellite DNA or commonly as short tandem repeats are scattered throughout the human genome and occur on an average of every 10,000 nucleotides. Microsatellite markers are considered to be the most powerful genetic markers. Collection, preservation and handling are the integral part of DNA fingerprinting analysis. There are various methods to isolate DNA from different biological materials but presently most of the laboratories prefer using FTA paper. The age of humans can be estimated by using DNA based on telomere shortening.

Sexual torture was prevalent in ancient times. It may take place in any form e.g., violence against sexual organs, physical sexual assault and mental sexual assault. There are many examples of sexual torture throughout the world. Indonesia in 1998 riot has witnessed several cases of sexual tortures. There are always some forms of motives in sexual torture. Methods employed in sexual torture are many--with or without using instruments or animals. The revival or moral values in the society, respect for women, sanctity of the family, respect for individual's dignity and awakening at social levels can meet the challenge.