The ministry officials said no headway was made in the cases because of the delay in the last two years. "A postmortem report should be timely, as it is crucial to a case," a ministry official said.

In three months from January, 1,936 murder and unnatural death cases were filed across the country while the doctors gave reports on only half the cases. "As many as 935 reports are yet to be prepared," the official said.

Doctors gave reports on 59 cases in five days after the incidents, 116 cases in 10 days, 93 cases in 15 days, 104 cases in 21 days, 188 cases in a month, 2,267 cases in two months and 131 cases in three months, the ministry says. Only 25 autopsy reports were submitted on the day of the incident.

Doctors also did not issue postmortem reports on 1,520 cases of the 4,356 filed before 2004. Police say they could not go ahead with the cases, as they did not receive autopsy reports in time.

"Sometimes, it takes more than six months to get an autopsy report," said Mohammad Imamuddin, assistant officer-in-charge of Tejgaon Police Station.

Forensic doctors at Dhaka Medical College (DMC) say preparing autopsy reports is not their primary duty. "The home ministry is simply using the doctors without payment," said Dr Mohammad Akhteruzzaman, head of the DMC forensic department, who emphasised teaching as their prime concern.

"We defend our autopsy reports in court, but we hardly receive any money for this job. Some doctors did not receive travel allowances for the last four years," he alleged.

Dr Akhteruzzaman told Star City that he appeared in court 17 times in June 1999 alone and spent more than Tk 3,000 of his own. "I knew I would not get the expenses back."

The forensic department is overburdened with work: lecturers carry out autopsies up to 20 corpses a day.

"We need at least half an hour for an autopsy and half an hour more for writing the report. If the doctors remain busy carrying out autopsies when will they teach students?" Dr Akhteruzzaman asked.

Records show 4,800 bodies were examined at the morgue of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) last year, while only four professors and six lecturers run the department with rundown machines and poor fund. "Only one morgue assistant opens up to 20 dead bodies a day and gets poor salary."

In a meeting of the home ministry's monitoring cell on May 24, officials sought help from the health ministry to sort out the problem and set up a guideline.

Health ministry officials said the doctors cannot complete reports in time, as they are often transferred or go abroad. The meeting suggested coordination between the two ministries and holding up transfer if the doctor does not clear his autopsy reports.

The forensic doctors denied the allegation of delay and said they send reports in time but police hide them to make underhand dealings with the accused.

"They take bribe from the criminals and collect a second copy of the autopsy report, which is not enough for a judge to hand down capital punishment," said the head of the forensic department.

The forensic department stopped sending autopsy reports to the police station by snail post. Every Thursday, doctors ask all police stations by phone to collect reports. "Sometimes they come and collect, sometimes don't," he said.

A committee formed by the health ministry, with the help of forensic doctors from Dhaka, Barisal, Mymensingh and Chittagong medical colleges framed a draft on policy with a suggestion for appointing forensic doctors to police departments for quick reports.