Functioning of forensic labs hit by staff shortage

The New Indian Express: Kochi: Thursday, March 28, 2013.

Even as the government is making efforts to modernise the Forensic Science Laboratories of the Police Department for speedy examination of samples, their attempts seem to be a futile exercise.

According to the data from the Home Department, till March 2013, forensic examination of samples in over 3,500 cases are pending with the laboratories of the Police Department.

The data show that 3,874 samples from the last five years, sent by the state police, Crime Branch, Excise Department and the Central Bureau of Investigation, are pending with the forensic laboratories.

These include several sensational murder and rape cases registered during the last five years.

Siva Prasad M S, secretary, Indian Criminology and Forensic Science Association, said that as per the information received through the RTI, cases registered in 2002 were also pending owing to the delay in forensic examination.

“The major reason for the delay is the shortage of staff at the forensic laboratories. There are around 64 examiners in the police laboratories across the state. The Justice K T Thomas Commission had recommended that the number of forensic experts should be 1 per cent of the total number of policemen in the state.

At present, there are over 50,000 policemen in the state. So, the number of forensic experts should come to around 400-500. However, the staff strength in police laboratories is only 15 per cent. The department has to recruit more hands to end the delay which is affecting the investigation in the cases,” Siva Prasad said.

The officials also point out that the people who have completed MSc Forensic Science are not being recruited for the post of examiner in FSLs.

Currently, only students who have completed MSc in Chemistry, Biology and Physics are being recruited for the post. After recruitment, they are being given a one-year training in Forensic Science.

A top police officer said that the department could not recruit more forensic experts owing to the fund crunch.

“Several recruits leave the service within two or three years. Only the FSL at the police headquarters is functioning normally.

The other two regional FSLs in Kannur and Thrissur are facing staff shortage.  Recently, a few forensic experts were recruited, but that won’t be enough,” the officer said.