HAVE PRINTS CAN’T READ

The Directorate of Forensic Sciences has 7.37 lakh files of fingerprints to be read and digitalised, but doesn’t have enough manpower

DILIP PATEL AND VIPUL RAJPUT

The Directorate of Forensic Sciences, Gandhinagar, is faced with a huge and increasing backlog of fingerprint files to be cleared. As many as 7.37 lakh files of fingerprints reading are yet to be cleared, delaying arrests, trial and conviction in cases, some of them involving serious offences.
The number of new prints to be read has seen 70 per cent drop between between 2006 and 2008. Figures provided by home department sources show that every year, 30,000 to 35,000 new prints land in the directorate, but only 50 per cent of them are read and digitalised. The reason: Lack of manpower.
The government reduced the staff inducted in 1985 by 20 per cent citing over-staffing and cost cutting, and has also been ignoring the directorate’s six-year-old demand for fresh recruitment. Of the 259 staff required, the directorate has only 173, say home department sources. SM Joshi, the director of AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System) at the directorate confirmed the lack of staff.
“Every year, the AFIS section alone gets 2.5 prints to match. Of this, 1 to 1.5 lakh prints are cleared,” he said, adding that though the AFIS was a good system, lack of manpower was affecting work.
“We can’t digitalise all the prints and thus, give them priority according to crime. Those involving serious offences, are obviously taken up first,” Joshi said. According to Joshi, of the 32 posts for fingerprint experts in the AFIS section, 10 are vacant.
The making of a fingerprint expert is not easy, Joshi said. A graduate from any discipline once inducted begins with a one-year probation followed by three years of learning thorough practical and theoritical training. He then is required to take the exam
conducted by the All India Fingerprint Expert Examination Board, New Delhi where the minimum grades to be secured are 75 per cent. The opinion of a qualified expert is considered final in all courts, Joshi said.

Files pending in 2008: 7.37 lakh

Files pending 2009: 7.37 lakh

Of 2 lakh new prints received in 2006, 63,000 were read

Of 38,000 new prints received in 2008,
30,000 were read