Catch the cheater!
From DNA tests to determine paternity, to analysing blood splatter to catch a criminal, there’s no getting away anymore! Purba Dutt investigates
THE sheen is off Shiney as the haplocytes render him hapless. Elsewhere, politician ND Tiwari is living the old saw as you sow, so shall you reap. He has to go through a paternity test to prove or disprove if the wild oats he allegedly sowed live in the young man who insists that the politician is his father. With increasing frequency of paternity, DNA and other forensic tests, there’s hope that this trend will rein in reckless libidos and philandering partners. In fact from slimy swamis and swindling scamsters to bungling builders, actors in action, promiscuous politicians and moonlighting mates, there’s many a slip between the mug and the fingertip that can give them away.
It’s impossible, forensic experts concur, for a criminal to act without leaving traces of some presence.
Digital proof
Take finger-printing, for instance. Modern fingerprinting techniques can not only check millions of criminal records simultaneously, but can also match faces, backgrounds and other identifiable characteristics to each perpetrator.
Gene junction
Very much like fingerprints, unless you’ve an identical twin, your DNA is unique to you. However, catching a criminal using DNA evidence is not quite easy; there are tedious scientific procedures which go along with it. (A relatively new technique — SNP analysis. Forensic scientists used SNP technology successfully to identify several Sept. 11 World Trade Center victims for whom other methods had failed). A prominent politician, now deceased, was asked to undergo a DNA paternity test in connection with a sensational murder case of a journalist, but he had
reportedly dug
in his heels. Says
eminent criminal lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani, “There were DNA tests done in connection with the Swami Premananda case, but the results proved that many of the rape allegations were unfounded.”
Write hand
If your helical structures can do you in, you can also be hard done by the way you dot your ‘I’s and cross your ‘T’s. A person’s fine-motor skills can affect his or her handwriting and leave clues about the author’s identity. It relies on extensive knowledge of the way people create letter formation, which is unique, and the physiological processes behind its formation. “Many an unscrupulous builder has resorted to forgery, and it’s through their signature and handwriting analysis that they’ve been nailed,” says Jethmalani.
Drug plug
One of the commonest tests is detecting the presence of narcotics and drugs on a person. Shares Mahesh, “This is one test that is being done all the time, and there’s little that can go wrong with it, unlike the lie-detector tests where the margin of error is high, the science behind it still imperfect, and which is not admissible in a court of law.” He continues, “Just finding possession of drugs on a person is not always conclusive because there have been cases where the stuff has been planted.” The rather sudden death of the King of Pop Michael Jackson has now been attributed to drug overdose.
Red-handed!
Another interesting domain is that of bloodstain pattern analysis. Analysing blood splatter isn’t nearly as simple as fictional bloodstain pattern analysts like Dexter Morgan make it to be. The reality is different, and if there are multiple victims and multiple assailants, it becomes even more complex. But a well-trained and seasoned bloodstain pattern analyst
can often provide key information
to reveal the real crime drama.
The distribution, size and
shape of bloodstains on a
victim, on a suspect or
at a crime scene can
be crucial to the interpretation and the reconstruction of the events that produced the bloodstains.
Acid test
But how reliable really are these tests? According to those in the field, if done carefully and correctly, these tests can help recreate the crime in laboratory settings and solve the crime. Proper chain of custody, avoidance of cross-transfer or contamination and standardised testing make an investigation outcome more reliable. Says a top legal source on condition of anonymity, “Many of our forensic examiners are not above taking bribes and manipulating the results/findings. As long as that happens, we’ll continue to undermine the immense significance of forensic science in the field of investigation.”
(With insights and inputs from forensic
expert at IFO, Delhi Joulyn V Kenny)
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