title: Suicide pact by drowning with bound wrists: a case of medico-legal importance.
abstract: Suicide pacts are uncommon and mainly committed by male-female pairs in a consortial relationship. The victims frequently choose methods such as hanging, poisoning, using a firearm, etc; however, a case of a suicide pact by drowning is rare in forensic literature. We report a case where a male and a female, both young adults, in a relationship of adopted "brother of convenience" were found drowned in a river. The victims were bound together at their wrists which helped with our conclusion this was a suicide pact. The medico-legal importance of wrist binding in drowning cases is also discussed in this article.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Behera
authors.forename: Krishna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Karthik
authors.forename: Hansraj
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Prakash
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Deepak
authors.forename: Akhilesh R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Jhamad
authors.forename: D N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Bhardwaj
mesh_terms: D004332:Drowning; D005260:Female; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D012149:Restraint, Physical; D013405:Suicide; D014953:Wrist; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Suicide pacts; bound wrists; drowning; medico-legal