Abstract
Background: Fabricated injuries also known as forged or factitious injuries are those injuries which are produced by a person on his own body, known as self-inflicted injuries or caused by another person acting in agreement with him known as self-suffered injuries.

Aim and Objectives: The aim of the study was to study pattern of fabricated injuries in medico-legal assault cases in a tertiary care teaching hospital.

Materials and Methods: The present study of 500 medicolegal cases of mechanical injuries due to assault was conducted of those patients, who were admitted to Emergency Department of Guru Nanak Dev Hospital attached to Government Medical College, Amritsar after taking permission from the Ethics Committee of the college. Demographic and injury details both clinically as well as radiologically were recorded with special concern about whether these were fabricated or not.

Results: In this study, the incidence of fabricated injuries was 12.6% and it was observed that majority (92.1%) of medicolegal cases with fabricated/forged injuries were males. The most common type of mechanical injury among self-inflicted fabricated medicolegal cases was incised wounds (61.7%). Furthermore, the majority of the fabricated injuries were grievous in nature (87.2%) with the most common radiological finding associated was cortical cut fractures in (72.9%) cases.

Conclusion: Combined efforts of all the law enforcing agencies and medical professionals can help in prevention of fabrication of injuries and will help further in avoiding unnecessary harassment to the innocent person thus reducing burden of fake criminal cases in police/judiciary department and hospitals.

Key words: Medicolegal Cases; Assault, Fabricated Injuries; Cortical Cut Fracture; Grievous Hurt; Incised Wound