Puleno Kennao
PhD Scholar, President, Naga Forensic Science Association
The inauguration of the new FSL building in Nagaland and the central program, where every police station across the country would be equipped with special kits to probe rape cases has brought to light the significance of the “Forensic Scientific Officer” in criminal investigations. A “Scientific Officer” is notably a person with an in-depth knowledge and expertise in a specific subject matter. With a polymath mind possessed, the investigator becomes adept and pertinent to the preliminary investigation and the theoretical proficiency is reliably applied to decipher complex cases. Thereby, maintaining standard operating procedures of the crime scene investigation and adopting an international protocol to present a legal evidence.
The role of a “Forensic Scientific Officer” is still a novel idea in the Criminal Justice System of Nagaland. The courts in Nagaland generally award verdicts without the forensic evidence by a Scientific Officer which is unethical in the prosecution process of the judicial system. Nagaland has a well-established Forensic laboratory since 1982, but the forensic reports are made and reported by trained Police Officers which ironically is not admissible in the court as an evidence. Due to this reason particularly, most of the forensic cases are transferred to forensic labs located in other cities such as Guwahati, Kolkata and Hyderabad. Such transfer of evidence results in contamination, additional expenses on the exchequer and loss of crucial physical evidence. These factors ultimately lead to a cold case since validation of evidence becomes a challenge under such circumstances.
Our State has a pool of qualified individuals who have graduated from reputed forensic universities such the LNJN National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Sciences which functions directly under the Ministry of Home Affairs and wherein Officers from all over the country, as well as other countries, participate in training the students through seminars, conferences and discussions. A good number of members of the Naga Forensic Association are presently working as Scientific Assistant in Directorate of Forensic Science Mumbai, some are PhD scholars while many have completed their graduate or post-graduate studies. In the course of finding employment and broadening the horizons, few members have worked as Crime Reporters in the Times of India, attended International and National Conferences of Forensic Question Documents, Toxicology, cybercrime, DNA fingerprinting and many others. There are a whole lot of members who have taken training under different Directorates of Forensic Science like Gujarat, Delhi, Chandigarh and other States across the country.
The bigger question here is, why should the State seek help from others when we have our very own well-qualifiedNagas waiting to do the job they are passionate about in their homeland?
We, therefore, believe and hope that the concerned Department takes this into consideration and understand that there are eligible, skillful and dedicated job seekers, anticipating the speedy process of recruitment and produce experts to promote the concept of Quality Assurance and Quality control of Forensic Sciences.
