Date:25/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/25/stories/2008112556510300.htm

Karnataka

Policemen undergo training in forensic science

Staff Correspondent

Davangere: The Additional Director General of Police (Crime and Technical Service), S.T. Ramesh, has called upon the police to ensure that the evidences at the spot of crime are not tampered with or disturbed and that the police cordon off the area of crime till vital clues about the offenders are gathered and primary investigations are over.

Mr. Ramesh was speaking after inaugurating a two-day workshop on “Protection of crime spots”, organised for the eastern range policemen here on Monday.

He said that it was the duty of every investigating officer to cordon off the crime spot and search for vital clues so that investigations can be carried out in a more scientific and professional manner. If the crime spot is studied carefully, then there would be no need to detain suspected persons and using third degree method of investigation, which was inhuman, to elicit truth.

However, he claimed that police in the State had stopped using third degree mode of investigation.

“First study the crime stop, collect evidence, probe and then if need be summon the suspected persons and carry out verbal interrogations instead of using third degree measures. And avoid arresting people on suspicion before probing the case,” Mr. Ramesh advised the police personnel.

“Do not neglect any object in the crime area as it might turn out to be a vital clue for solving the case,” he said.

The Additional Director General of Police informed that over compact discs of the training module on scientific method of investigation had been provided to all the 876 police stations in the State to facilitate the investigating officer to view and adopt the techniques shown in detecting cases reported in his jurisdiction.

Mr. Ramesh also informed that his department had compiled data on 10 lakh criminals and the police personnel could access to the data by just logging on to the main server of the department.

The portrait building software given to the police stations helps in developing computer sketches of suspected persons, he added.

Inspector-General of Police (Eastern range) H.N. Satyanarayana Rao, Davangere SP Sandeep Patil, Bellary SP Simanthkumar Singh, Chitradurga SP Laboo Ram, and Additional SP from Shimoga Srikantappa and Deputy Director of Forensic Science Laboratory Dhanaraja Char were among others who participated in the workshop.