Inside white-washed, disinfected rooms, cause of death in post-mortem reports of fatal burns cases read: shock, burns or complications arising from burns. If any of these cases involved the death of a woman married for not less than seven years, a complex legal procedure would follow.

According to Section 304 B of the Indian Penal Code, if the death of a woman who has been married for less than seven years is found to be caused by burns, bodily injury or any other unnatural circumstance, an inquest for dowry harassment has to be conducted by an executive magistrate or a revenue divisional officer. If the inquest establishes that the victim was subjected to dowry harassment before her death, then her demise is termed a dowry death and her in-laws and husband can be held liable. This apart, if a burns victim is in a critical state, a judicial magistrate can be called in to record her version of the incident as a dying declaration', which can later be used as evidence during prosecution.

"To begin with, we know when a case of fatal burns is accidental, suicidal or homicidal by the distribution of burns suffered by the victim," says Dr R Selvakumar, professor, forensic medicine, GGH. "There have been numerous instances when we have been told that the woman got burnt while cooking because the stove burst. If this is the case, then the woman should have suffered burns only on the front portions of her body. Her back would have been spared," he explains. Moreover, if a woman has set herself on fire while standing, then her soles would still remain unaffected, he adds.

The low incidence in reporting fatal burns cases as dowry deaths is not just linked to shoddy investigation but also to attempts by victims and families to hush up the incident to save family honour.

"On numerous occasions, witnesses, usually family members, turn hostile," says advocate cum human rights activist Sudha Ramalingam. "They don't want to provide evidence against their own kin. At other times, relatives hush up the issue as they feel the child, which is already motherless, should not be made fatherless too," she adds.

Another reason why a majority of fatal burns cases are dismissed off as accidental is due to the presence of multiple and contradictory dying declarations issued by victims themselves, which weaken chances of prosecution. Dr Ragavan recalls a 15-year-old case where the victim who admitted to being set fire by her mother-in-law to him, contradicted her own statement in the presence of the magistrate. "The woman had suffered third degree burns. But she didn't want to go ahead with the complaint as she felt that if she did survive, she would have to live with the same family," Ragavan says.

Opinions vary over how many fatal burns cases are genuine cases of dowry deaths across medical and investigative authorities. A senior professor with the forensic department says, "In my opinion, less than 5 % of fatal burns cases are caused by dowry harassment. Abetment of suicide forms another 50 % per cent. The rest of the cases are suicidal." A statement concurred to by a high-ranking police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"These days, men, women and children are driven to extreme action with the slightest of provocations," the officer says. "The figures thrown up by the SCRB are in keeping with reality. People are socially-aware and it's only in the rarest of rare cases that dowry harassment goes unreported."

This year, between January 1 - 15, the corkboards at the four government hospitals registered 49 cases of fatal burns cases. With a conviction rate of 0.52%, only time will tell how many of these will emerge as genuine cases of dowry deaths.