Egyptian Journal of Forensic Sciences (2013) 3, 61–63

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Egyptian Journal of Forensic Sciences

journal homepage: www.ejfs.org

CASE REPORT

A conundrum of disbelief: A remarkable case study

of volitional activity

Munawwar Husain a, Arshad Anjum a,*, Afzal Haroon b, Jawed A. Usmani a,

Mubarak Alshariam c

a Department of Forensic Medicine, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh 202002, Indiab Department of Forensic Medicine, Teerthanker Mahaveer Medical College & Research Centre Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh

202002, Indiac Department of Pathology, Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Received 23 November 2012; accepted 14 February 2013

Available online 20 April 2013

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KEYWORDS

Volition;

Volitional activity;

Complete midrib transection;

FIR

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Abstract It seems unimaginably unthinkable that a man could talk to the police officer after his

body has been completely transected by a running train rendering it into two halves upper and

lower torso. But it did happen, details of which are discussed in this paper. What is important

and valuable is how the court of law would look into this matter and frame its mind accordingly

once the case reaches the trial court. Would the court accept the statement of a dying torso? Though

the court reposes faith in medical testimony – provided it is scientifically credible – in many

instances it apply its own common sense to reach a conclusion. In this article the authors have

evoked common sense, medical evidence and corresponding legal requirement to predict a fair trial.

This case has undoubtedly bizarre presentation that would baffle the most experienced and sensitive

medical mind.ª 2013 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Forensic Medicine Authority.

1. Introduction

Volitional activities are the actual voluntary acts or physicalactivity observed in a victim of fatal injury. The medical and

epartment of Forensic Medi-

im University, Aligarh, Uttar

63634.

com (A. Anjum).

nsic Medicine Authority.

g by Elsevier

ing by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of F

02

forensic literature is replete with incidences of diverse fatal

injuries in which volitional activity has been witnessed and re-corded. Some of these are subscripted for better understandingof the phenomenon.

1. On May 23, 1923, at noon time, a male aged 40 years wasstabbed in the stomach with a knife and was able to walkfew yards and made a report at the police station. He also

made the dying declaration before his death.1

2. At about 8.00 pm on March 24, 1928, a 50 year old malereceived an incised wound 1 · ½ inches on the left side of

the neck. He ran after the assailant but was unsuccessfuland fell down from where he was taken to the police sta-tion. He made a First Information Report (FIR) and was

orensic Medicine Authority.

Figure 2 Transected body of the victim lying on the railway

track.

62 M. Husain et al.

subsequently taken to the hospital. His dying declaration

was recorded at 10.30 pm – a good two and half hours afterreceiving the injury. He died at midnight the same day.2

3. On the morning of December 14, 1931, a person was shot

by a girl in his office. He ran inside several rooms shouting‘‘I am hit’’, then ran into the pantry where he fell downdead. Post mortem examination revealed that the bullethad gone through the heart came out and got embedded

in right lung.3

These and many other volitional activities performed dur-

ing the phase of post criminal assault are recognized by courtsof law4 provided these activities are supported by reasonablemedical testimony.5,6 Even in case medical speculation exists

supporting volitional activity, the court requires that suchmedical evidence must strongly rest on physiologic–pathologicbasis and that it must be able to satisfy the legal corpus so nec-essary to pronounce a verdict.7

2. The trigger and the closest possible explanation of the sordid

episode

The trigger of this presentation was provided by a news item ina Hindi language daily newspaper.8 The news paper reportedthat an adult was run over by a train at an unmanned railway

crossing in district Moradabad, state of Uttar Pradesh, India,on February 3, 2012. (Figs. 1 and 2) The body of the man wascompletely transected in two halves. The man survived for

twenty minutes, was able to give the report coherently to thepolice who rushed to the accident site. All through this period

Figure 1 Victim’s body is lying on the railway track and the

train is moved backward as per the protocol.

he remained calm and apparently felt no pain. Then he suc-cumbed to his injuries.

The dreddour moiety of this episode is epitomized in threequestions:

Q1. Is it possible that a human being could survive fornearly 20 min after being resected completely in two halves

in a format of painless consciousness?Q2. How will the medical science be able to explain such anabnormal behavior in a rationally-devised and medically-

construed explanation?Q3. Will the trial court take kindly to medical testimony inan event that has no privileged precedence and may never

have the quoz posterity?

These questions are addressed individually in order to rad-ically compose a reasonable medical legal structural frame.

Regarding question (1) logically it is not possible for a per-son to survive even for a few minutes after a trauma of such amagnitude. However, because it has happened therefore the

probable sequence for question (2) may be explained byaddressing the neuro-physiological ‘stunning’.9 Reduction inthe flow of blood through resection of major arteries like

abdominal aorta may be explained by referring to the laceratedwound. Such types of wounding would accelerate the processof fibrin deposition and clotting.10 The severe trauma coupledwith the heavy weight of the train compartment would have

crushed the lacerated aortic ends thereby sealing it effectivelyand preventing the rapid loss of blood. Furthermore, becausehalf of the torso was de-linked from the body it must have ren-

dered the body devoid of approximately two to two half litersof blood. In that eventuality the heart would function less andthere would be weaker diastolic and systolic movements. This

would have contributed to weaker blood flow within the bodyand hence less blood would have seeped out from the wounds.In the study it was determined that persons with an internal

A conundrum of disbelief: A remarkable case study of volitional activity 63

blood loss as high as 2200 ml may stay alive for several hoursand that a blood loss of 1500 ml is not synonymous withunconsciousness. Some victims have even shown acting capa-

bility despite the high blood loss.11 This sequence might haveprecipitated accelerated blood clotting.10 The railway trackwhere the body was found was littered with stones – grounded

and non-grounded – of all sizes, including pebbles. The possi-bility of these foreign bodies getting inside the cut part of thebody in abundance and blocking the blood flow channels can-

not be ruled out. Regrettably, the post mortem examinationreport has not commented on this aspect either for inclusionor exclusion purpose. Question (3) obviously needs a big med-ical playing field in which the events may be collated by anal-

ogous behavior of the body in similar other happenings notnecessarily of such magnitude. The medical testimony mustbe able to explain the phenomenon of volition in unpredictable

form which though cannot be fully explained in one sentenceshould have the capacity to bead together small patho-physiological occurrences culminating in behavior observed.

3. Conclusion

Finally, it can be reasonably commented that this case is un-

ique in itself. The trial court would be inclined to believe inthe medical version propping-up the ‘volitional act’ theory.However, it would have been better had the dead body been

subjected to detailed Computerized Tomography (CT) scanto establish the real cause of death and whether that causewould reasonably support the view that the person during such

an agonal phase could have reacted in the manner he did.

References

1. K.E.V. Kallakhan of district Bijnore, India All High Court

Criminal Appeal of 753 of 1923.

2. Emperor v. Chhote. All High Court Criminal Appeal No. 636 of

1928.

3. Leader, December 25, 1931.

4. Sukho P, editor. Bernard Knight’s forensic pathology. Lon-

don: Arnold; 2002.

5. Mishra MD, Ashwathi SK. Digest on medical jurisprudence and

toxicology. 2nd ed. New Delhi: Orient Publishing Company;

2001.

6. Moitra E, Kaushal R. Medical jurisprudence and toxicology for

court room. 2nd ed. Jodhpur, India: Unique Law Publishers;

2001.

7. Jhala RM, Kumar K. Jhala and Raju’’s medical jurisprudence

illustrated. 6th ed. Lucknow, India: Eastern Book Co.; 1997.

8. Dainik Jagran, Moradabad City, India, February 3, 2012.

9. Eichbaum FW, Slemer O, Yasaka W J. Postdecapitation convul-

sions and their inhibition by drugs. Exp Neuro. 1975;49(3):802–12.

10. Spoerke NJ, Van PY, Differding JA, et al. J trauma. 2010;69(5):

1054–9.

11. Thoresson SO, Rognum TO. Survival time and acting capability

after fatal injury by sharp weapon. For Sci Int. 1980;980(31): 180–7.