Lack of adequate staff plagues forensic science labs

As per the statistics provided by FSL headquarters in Mumbai, a total of 1,20,451 cases were pending as of November 2022 in all the 13 labs. The samples include those submitted by law enforcement agencies for ballistics, handwriting, blood, voice samples, DNA comparison and cyber-forensic analysis

Mumbai: The past year witnessed a string of sensational cases including the horrific murder of a Santacruz based businessman — purportedly by his wife and her lover, the murder of a Juhu woman allegedly by her own son and the FIR against actor Ranveer Singh, who allegedly posed nude for a magazine photoshoot. Apart from their high-profile nature, what these cases have in common is that the crucial reports concerning these are still awaited from the forensic science laboratories.

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Santa Cruz resident 45-year-old Kamalkant Shah was allegedly poisoned by his wife Kavita and her lover Hitesh Jain in September last year. According to the police, it was a case of slow poisoning, which started from August last year till the victim ultimately died on September 19, 2022.

The case was being investigated by the Mumbai Crime Branch and even though a lot of evidence had been gathered, the clinching piece of proof in the case were the reports of viscera analysis. These reports would officially certify that the death was due to poisoning.

Pending woes

However, for two and a half months, the Crime Branch was waiting for the reports from the forensic science laboratory. Worried that the accused might slip out of their hands, the investigating team submitted samples of Shah’s blood to the Bombay Hospital. A metal test was conducted on the samples, which confirmed the presence of thallium and arsenic, and the accused were finally arrested.

The pendency of cases due to lack of adequate staff has always been a major issue for the Directorate of Forensic Science Laboratories, Maharashtra. There are 13 forensic science laboratories across Maharashtra, which include a divisional laboratory in Kalina in Santacruz, seven full-fledged regional laboratories in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad, Nanded, Amravati, Kolhapur and Nagpur, and five mini laboratories in Chandrapur, Ratnagiri, Dhule, Solapur and Thane.

As per the statistics provided by FSL headquarters in Mumbai, a total of 1,20,451 cases were pending as of November 2022 in all the 13 labs. The samples include those submitted by law enforcement agencies for ballistics, handwriting, blood, voice samples, DNA comparison and cyber-forensic analysis.

“Forensic evidence is very significant in detecting cases as well in securing convictions. In most of the cases, the investigating agency does not have direct eye witness and in such cases, forensic evidence becomes the backbone of the case,” said Additional commissioner of police Dilip Sawant, south region.

Evidences don’t lie

The most sensational case that Sawant recalls was in 2010, when he was deputy commissioner of police (Zone VI). Three girls, aged between 6 and 9 years, were kidnapped, raped and killed in the Kurla East, and all the three cases were registered with the Nehru Nagar police station.

“There was no direct witness in the case. But while collecting forensic evidence, semen was found on the victims’ bodies. The police collected DNA samples from more than 900 people at the time, including the victim’s close relatives, neighbours and local residents. Finally, 18-year-old Javed Shaikh’s DNA samples matched with that of the samples recovered from the bodies and we arrested him in July 2010. He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment,” said Sawant.

Several police officers agree that forensic evidence helps in investigation – either to positively ascertain the involvement of a suspect or to eliminate doubts. As a senior IPS officer put it, “Witnesses can tell lies but forensic evidence does not lie.”

Forensics matters

In every major crime investigation, a FSL team visits the scene of the crime and goes over every inch of it to look for clues. However, the delay in sending reports often brings the investigation to a standstill, hampering the credibility of the police and affecting the conviction rate, said the IPS officer. He added that the delay in receipt of forensic reports many a times results in delay in filing charge-sheets and eventually inures to the benefit of the accused.

One of the best examples of the importance of forensic evidence is the 2018 murder of Kirti Vyas, a finance manager with the B Blunt Salon. Mumbai Crime Branch interrogated the accused – two of her colleagues – for over two weeks but to no avail.

Finally, they sent one of the colleague’s cars to the FSL and forensic experts found a single bloodstain in the boot of the car, so small that it was not visible to the naked eye. But the DNA of the blood matched samples with Kirti’s parents. The FSL report, specifically, said that the blood belonged to ‘a female offspring of the two parents’ and they had only one daughter.

Kirti’s body, which was disposed of in the Wadala creek by the accused, has still not been found. However, the DNA report remains the single-most important and irrefutable piece of evidence against the two accused in the case.

Slow but not steady

An FSL official said on the condition of anonymity that the slow disposal of cases can be mainly attributed to the shortage of staff in all divisions of the FSLs – over 31% of sanctioned posts in FSLs across Maharashtra are lying vacant as of now while the number of samples referred to the FSLs have gone up considerably. Of the total sanctioned strength of 1,463 in the FSLs, 466 are lying vacant.

Mumbai FSL has the sanctioned strength of 426, of which 180 posts are lying vacant. As a result, samples in 26,063 cases are pending with the Mumbai FSL of which 6,837 cases are of cybercrime, while 6,195 cases require DNA fingerprinting. Pune FSL is second highest in terms of pendency with samples lying for analysis in 19,493 cases and Amravati the third position with samples pending in 14,025 cases.

In 2016, around 400 employees were hired on contractual basis to clear the pendency in the FSLs. Most of the people were hired in departments like voice sample authentication, speaker identification and cyber forensic tests, which had the maximum pendency. However, in 2018, their services were discontinued and the staff shortage still plagues the FSLs.

FSL officials, however, denied that analysis of samples in serious crimes or high-profile cases are delayed.

“There are times when the evidence does not reach the laboratory on time. Especially, in sexual offences, samples should come to us immediately. The police do not need to wait for registration of the FIR, as that can be done after the samples are sent as well. We never delay reports in serious offences or high-profile cases,” said the FSL official.