After inaugurating the symposium, Punjab Director General of Police NPS Aulakh said the technological progress and scientific explorations in the fields of information technology, biotechnology and genetic engineering have added many new dimensions to the global crime scene.
He added that in future criminals would exploit all these advancements in committing crimes. “Forensic scientists, therefore, will have to evolve new ways to encounter the strategies of criminals by updating their tools, techniques and strategies.”
The DGP said that while police forces are making efforts to keep pace with the technological advancements, the Government of India has also set up a committee on the criminal justice system to strengthen forensic laboratories and forensic medical legal services to assist investigation officers.
Aulakh further added that every district in the state would have a mobile forensic vehicle equipped with live fingerprint scanners, laptops and digital cameras. “The Punjab Police is also undertaking initiatives to provide network facility of Mobile Automatic Fingerprint Identification System to all the 24 districts of the state,” he said.
Aulkah disclosed that the Punjab Fingerprint Bureau at Phillaur has manual fingerprint record of 5-lakh convicts and over 2-lakh computerised fingerprint record of active criminals. “We are also in the process of constructing an exclusive building for the FSL at Mohali,” he said.
Presiding over the symposium, Punjbi University Vice-Chancellor Jaspal Singh said that scientists would have to make a rapid progress to counter criminals and create a crime-free society. “The fact has assumed significance in the light of the fact that criminals are moving, if not more, at equal pace with the law-enforcing agencies by quickly fine-tuning their designs and strategies of operation,” he said.
Joseph Almog from the Casali Institute of Applied Chemistry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, in his keynote address on ‘Forensic Science Does Not Start In the Lab’ spoke about various kits being used to detect actual causes of death and means used for it.
He also focused on new types of explosives being used by terrorists to execute crimes. Forensic Field Tests, he said, have additional advantages over other systems of crime detection as these don’t require scientists, can be conducted anywhere, can be applied before evidence has deteriorated and enable elimination of large number of suspects in a short period of time.