The writing is clear: CID’s Handwriting Bureau hit by staff shortage

Despite the important role which the Handwriting and Photographic Bureau, a wing of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Maharashtra police, has to play, it is facing a severe staff crunch and as a result the pendency of cases concerning the bureau has gone up to 7,500 in over a decade.

Mumbai: The 2002 Leonardo DiCaprio film ‘Catch me if you can’ brought to the fore an important part of forensic science, which helps the investigating agencies in unearthing a scam Di Caprio’s character perpetrates on PanAm Airlines — handwriting analysis.

Around 200 cases come every month in Mumbai and the four staff members are able to submit a maximum of 35 to 50 reports each month depending on the nature of the evidence. (ANSHUMAN POYREKAR / HT PHOTO)

Popular cinema aside, despite the important role which the Handwriting and Photographic Bureau, a wing of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Maharashtra police, has to play, it is facing a severe staff crunch and as a result the pendency of cases concerning the bureau has gone up to 7,500 in over a decade.

The bureau is responsible for verifying questionable documents, ascertaining whether documents and signatures are forged, carrying out chemical and forensic analysis of documents among other duties.

Though the bureau has a sanctioned strength of 40 experts, currently, there are only 25 handwriting experts working in four branches of CID at Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad.

According to the bureau, it had written to the higher authorities in CID and home department of the state government in 2019 requesting the bureau to be merged with the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) so that they could work under the scientific environment. However, their request has remained unheeded.

The communication had also cited the example of more than 20 states where the bureau has been merged with FSL.

Cases

The cases that come for the bureau’s intervention include examination of duplicate signatures, forgery cases, forged recommendation letters of ministers, MP’s and MLA’s, cases related to overwriting, sequence of writing, documents collected from murder crime scene, threatening letter, suicide letters, anonymous letters, domestic violence related letters, cases related to overwriting on cheques.

Apart from this, the bureau is also asked to verify government orders, contracts, agreements, wills, suicide notes, lottery tickets, passport, marksheets, leaving certificate, share transfer certificates, rubber stamp, school and college certificates, answer sheets, hall tickets and several other important documents.

After conducting the investigation, the bureau submits its reports and opinion for the sake of evidence to the investigating agency. This evidence is included in the chargesheet and experts from the handwriting bureau are also called upon for giving testimony in cases during the trial, said official.

Pendency:

There are 900 cases pending in Mumbai, while 1,500 each in Aurangabad and Nagpur and 3,500 cases in Pune alone. In the last decade, the pendency of cases in Mumbai has increased from 35 to 900. There were around 35 cases pending in 2012 but due to shortage of staff, it gradually started increasing. And in 2015, the pendency went up to 394 cases and 582 in 2016.

The highest pendency per year was in 2021, when the number went up to 1,235. Statistics showed that in 2022, a total of 1,021 cases were pending and in the current year, there are around 900 cases still pending in the city, said officials.

The main reason behind pendency of cases is the shortage of staff and the absence of clerical staff in the Mumbai office. The examiners even attend the police officials who bring evidence, completing these formalities such as collecting a document, takes a lot of time, added official.

“The opinion and testimony of handwriting experts during trials also have a huge bearing on the cases as it helps ascertain the rightful person or document so that the culprits can be punished,” said a senior IPS officer.

Around 200 cases come every month in Mumbai and the four staff members are able to submit a maximum of 35 to 50 reports each month depending on the nature of the evidence, said an official on the condition of anonymity.

Though Mumbai has its fair share of cases, maximum cases pending are in Pune as the bureau there has to look into cases that come in from Pune and Nagpur and their jurisdiction is much bigger when compared to Mumbai city.

An official further said that only high-profile cases are given priority and cited the case of a politician from Gujarat who had committed suicide in a hotel at south Mumbai.

“The bureau managed to submit the report post-haste but there are several cases pending from more than decade,” added the official.

Merger

Based on a 2016 NHRC report, which suggested that the handwriting and fingerprint department should merge with FSL, the bureau wrote to the additional director general of CID and Home department in 2019 requesting to be merged with FSL. The request had stated that the bureau was required to work under scientific atmosphere and with better equipment which they had not got for several years.

“The department’s set up is required in such a way where they get a scientific environment to cope with the heavy work load and produce strong enough evidence to identify and convict a criminal,” said an official adding that they hoped that the authorities took immediate steps lest pendency of cases went out of hand.