All is not Well with Forensic Science Practice

Prof Dr P Chandra Sekharan,
Founder President, Forensic Science Society of India
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The forensic practice began in India as early as in 1849 when the British established the first Chemical Examiner's Lab at Madras. To day there are thirty and odd forensic institutions, while three of them functioning under the Department of Forensic Science [DFS] attached to MHA Government of India, one directly under CBI and the rest of the 25 State labs are under state police. A handful of three or four State labs are functioning directly under State Home Departments. Thus forensic practice in India has been the monopoly of governmental experts. With my fifty years of forensic practice 35 years with the government and 15 years as in independent practitioner, I have no hesitation in dubbing the services offered by thirty and odd government labs as “Prosecution Forensics”.
I am distressed to know that during the past few years a few of the forensic labs in our country offer only pseudo forensics by bringing in the primitive narcoanalysis and premature brain-fingerprinting. The pseudo forensics gained popularity thanks to the TV channels telecasting like horror movies the barbaric tests undergone by the accused. The media, the public and to some extent the government and the judiciary seem to have been carried away by the explanation offered by the protagonists of these pseudoscientific tests that ‘though inhuman, these techniques have helped the police to nab terrorists’.


I had interacted with world top-class experts on counterterrorism when I attended, as an invitee representing India, the Colombo International Conference on Counterterrorism (2007) and learnt that none of the countries use these pseudo scientific methods to nab terrorists. Even during my recent US-Canada professional tour in August-October 2008 I found that the experts from those countries were amused to know that Indian Police are rallying round the pseudo-scientists immediately after the arrest of the accused/suspects without even undertaking any preliminary investigation.
It is patent that the Indian Police have been violating norms during the last few years by permitting the TV Channels to air videotapes and CDs containing statements made by the accused persons under narcoanalysis. This is a way of masking the inefficiency of the police and asserting that if the courts fail to accept their statements as evidence, they can say that the judiciary is responsible for not providing justice. Nevertheless these Narco-CDs displayed day in and day out in TV channels have brought tremendous impact on public domain and made indelible impression in the minds of public, media, and to some extent, of judiciary as well.
I can safely vouchsafe that the Directorate of Forensic Science [DFS] attached to the Ministry of Home Affairs [MHA] is responsible for the sorry state of affairs. The Director Dr MS Rao of DFS [DDFS] proved to be a pseudo scientist, has not only brought shame to Indian Forensics but has done more harm than good to the profession. His blabbering that “Scientists are planning to use Low Frequency portable electromagnetic radiation tools to immobilize the suicide bombers”, at the Forensic Science Forum as part of the 93rd Indian Science Congress held at Hyderabad during January 2006 proves that he is a ‘science fiction maniac’.
This blabbermouth declared “Electromagnetic mind control tools should be used for fighting terrorism. This technique of using electromagnetic radiation can control the mind of the suicide bomber and make him to leave his target place silently without making any effort to explode the bomb at the given area.” Rao remained in office for almost four years after he made the above stunt at Hyderabad and we are yet to come across the above gadget. The blab also started boasting that he will be developing a new area known as ‘preventive forensics’ using these pseudo scientific techniques. The ‘preventive forensics’ he talks about is nothing new and is as old as the concept of fingerprints of all first offenders being recorded and stored in order to catch the offender if he is involved further in criminal activities and leaves fingerprints. That is all.
Meanwhile Rao released two Procedure Manuals containing disinformation, one for narcoanalysis and the other for brain fingerprinting under the banner of MHA. These two manuals are actually unwarranted and I have represented to MHA to withdraw these Manuals. The primitive narcoanalysis test is an ‘invasive medical technique’ and introduced by medicos during the early nineteen twenties and world-wide condemned as an uncivilized barbaric test abandoned by medicos themselves during the nineteen sixties. It is this abandoned technique which was shamelessly picked up and practiced by forensic quacks in operation theatres unethically utilizing the services of anesthetists.
The brain fingerprinting technique was developed and patented in 1995 by Lawrence A. Farwell of U.S. His technique is so science-fictional that there are few takers in other parts of the world. I would dump it as Potemkin science. Our Indian Johnnies simply copied the American’s technique but gave different names to circumvent patent rights. The Bangalore group designated it as ‘brain-mapping’ and claimed that Malini was trained in that technique in 1992 itself (even before Farwell developed) in ‘Callgary’ University, ‘Cannada” [this is the spelling of Calgary and Canada found in Calgary certificate fabricated by Malini].
Dr Mukundan of the Gujarat group termed it as ‘brain electrical oscillation signature profiling’(BEOS). Since Dr Mukundan was born with a screw driver in his mouth (as claimed by himself in Hindu interview) and selling BEOS machines, Rao has no hesitation in appointing him as Adviser to DFS, MHA.
Finding that there was country-wide objection to these techniques, Rao suo jure appointed a Committee chaired by the Vice Chancellor Director, NIMHANS to examine the scientific validity of the brain fingerprinting technique followed by the above groups. But unfortunately the Committee declared both the techniques as unscientific and recommended immediate discontinuance. Therefore the Director DFS simply dissolved the Committee in order to prevent the report reaching the government. Nevertheless the Committee submitted its report to the Home Ministry. In spite of the expert committee’s report, Rao has the audacity to release his shabby procedure manuals simply to support the pseudo scientists. I have also brought these misdeeds to the notice of the MHA and the Prime Minister.
The fact that the DDFS himself was the mastermind in conducting narcoanalysis by non-medical people on thousands of human beings would certainly amount to criminal offence. It is a pity that the Indian police was also a party to this murky affair. The police are a disciplined force trained to uphold the law and to enable democratic institutions to function lawfully. Police powers are confined by the provisions of the Constitution, the Police Act, the Criminal Procedure Code the Evidence Act and many other local and special laws which impose restrictions on the scope and method of exercise of that power.
Forensic scientists should inspire the police with their scientific methods not to violate the norms. They will be accused of conspiring with them if they are a party in using the above pseudoscientific truth detecting methods, which indeed has resulted in the deterioration of the police investigating skill.
In addition to the above disturbing trend, Indian Forensics is also facing now the emergence of many mountebanks among forensic scientists, who fudge certificates of age and qualifications and enter service; who change analytical data, substitute evidence materials and adopt all corrupt practices. Example : Priyadharshini Matto Case of Delhi, Abaya case of Kerala Aarushi Talwar Case of Noida and Shopian Case of J&K. This is the situation that America faced a few decades ago.
The emergence of many independent forensic laboratories, Universities and other independent organizations offering forensic science services in U.S. the situation has totally changed and judiciary played a vital role by easing out the mountebanks and pseudo forensics from the profession and curbing scientific misconduct.
Scientific misconduct is the violation of the standard codes of scholarly conduct and ethical behavior in professional scientific work or research. Forensic scientists are expected to observe high standards of professional behavior in their work, their research, their preparation of reports and results, and in their interactions with the general public and individuals outside the institution. At least in developed nations there is an institution known as OSI (Office of Scientific Integrity) to check, regulate control and punish such scientific misconduct.
The ‘Director cum Chief Forensic Scientist’ [DCFS] attached to MHA who could have played the role of OSI in India is himself a bundle of several such scientific misconducts. The most condemnable ‘Scientific Misconduct’ of MS Rao is his unwarranted support to Mohan-Malini’s research on “Neurophysiological Methods of Interrogation of Suspects” for which 77.19 lakhs grant-in-aid was obtained from MIT Government of India without the approval of the state government.
The Karnataka government refused to approve the project till date. Hence second installment was not released by DIT. No audit done. No results were submitted to DIT.. The first installment of forty lakhs along with 18 lakhs of state contribution was conveniently looted. When the government wanted to initiate action against this demeanor, Rao wrote a demi-official letter to the Chief Secretary of the Government of Karnataka mentioning that the research and the findings of Malini and Mohan were a break-through worth patenting. Neither a single research paper was published nor any patent taken on this project till date.
Rao has gone now though his legacies are left behind. It is high time that MHA should scrape this post which is used as a promotion post for a handful of directors of the three Central Forensic Laboratories under DFS.
Instead, the MHA should have in it an important functionary in the status of an adviser commensurate with several other deliberations of MHA to tighten up home land security and establishment of National Investigating Agency. Hence the MHA should create a post equivalent to that of a scientific adviser and selection for the post should always be from best among the national scientists available in the country. Forensics is, after all, application of all branches of pure sciences.
The selection should be done by a ‘Search Committee’ to be appointed for the purpose by the MHA. The Search Committee may be constituted from among the retired top level scientists of the country. The guidelines for the search committee may be on the pattern of those applicable to the search committees constituted for the appointment of Vice Chancellors.
I want to bring one more aspect of the forensic practice in our country. This is about the dearth of forensic medical expertise. The forensic Medical experts belong to the medical department but work for the police and are even surprisingly known as police surgeons. That is why they are often described as ‘despised by the police and disowned by the medicos’ they are the standing monument of negligence. This is a world-wide phenomenon. The Home Ministry in consultation with the Health Ministry should find a way to improve the situation.
All is not well with the status of Forensic Sciences in the country. Setting up of a Forensic Science Commission by the Government of India to judiciously look into all matters relating to Forensics may perhaps be a timely solution.