Forensic Investigation Agency (FIA), Bilaspur organised a webinar on ‘Evolving Trend in Crime: Challenges for Forensic Science’ here recently. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Bastar Range Sundarraj P was the keynote speaker in the webinar. Addressing the webinar, IGP Sundarraj P said that forensic science plays an important role in crime scene investigation. The court hears the case on the basis of the evidence, therefore it is very important to closely investigate the crime scene to help the court to take a better decision. Now-a-days, the police in collaboration with the forensic team correctly collect the evidence in crime scene, which strengthens the case and with high conviction rate, the IGP Bastar Range said. Sundarraj P cited the example of Abhishek Mishra murder case in Durg district and the police closely presented the case with the help of fine evidence before the court, which led to a huge success for the police.

 

Many times the public or the police used to spoil the crime scene due to lack of information, but now the police are making the general public aware through awareness programme for this and at the same time police personnel and officers are also being trained by forensic experts, he added. He said that in order to control crimes, general public should be made aware and scientific investigation should be promoted. Sharing his experience, the IGP said that 10 years ago on August 15, near the Bastar District Headquarters, a dead body of a man was found in the forest, for which there was a lot of sensation in the area. When he along with police personnel reached the spot with my team, they saw that there was a bag lying next to the corpse from which an identity card was found, which was of a CRPF jawan and in the same bag a letter was also written saying that the security force camp should be removed from Bastar as well as to stop the mission ‘GREEN HUNT’. Whereas, according to the information found in the Forensic Expert’s Team service record, the corpse found at the site of the incident was not of that jawan.

 

Because the height of the jawan is written in that service record 5 feet 8 inches while the height of the corpse found at the scene was about 5 feet 4 inches. Later, to get more solid evidence, DNA test of the corpse was done in which DNA samples were taken from that corpse and also samples were collected from his parents which proved that the corpse found at the site of the incident was not that of the jawan. Despite this, the police continued their investigation and within a short period of time, succeeded in reaching the main culprit. The accused was arrested for murder and sent to jail. It was clear from this incident that the criminals may adopt many types of tricks to mislead the investigation team but under no circumstances can they escape the clutches of the police and forensic team, he added. The IGP said that the demand for forensic investigation will increase in the coming time.

 

FIA Director and Forensic Expert Dipendra Barmate said that the FIA is striving to punish the criminals through scientific investigation and give justice to the victim, in this context the agency is coming forward effectively so that the court has the facility to give better judgment. P S Bhagat, Dr Sudhir Yadav, Ravindra Yadav, Pratibha J Mishra, Manmohan Kashyap, Ratri Lahari, Vinay Sonwani, Anurag Kujur, FIA Team members and students of forensic department were present.