A HANDBOOK ON FORENSIC EVIDENCE IDENTIFICATION, COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION

The contents of this book are based on my experience, which I acquired in the last 32 years from different forensic laboratories and institutions in the field of forensic science. During the examination of the case exhibits, forming the opinion and tendering the expert witnesses in the different courts all over India, I felt that the proper collection of the exhibits from the scene of crime site played a very important role in crime investigation and for the court of law. The role of proper packing and preservation of the exhibits is equally important. The chain of custody of the crime exhibits should not be broken out from place of collection to the court room.

I felt that if there is any lacuna in the collection of the evidence material, due to any reasons whether lack of knowledge/proper training/equipment, the criminal investigation process may be affected and it also reduces/finish the evidential value in the court of law.

In the present time scenario, the evidence materials may be found in the micro form, which creates further challenges in identification and collection from the scene of crime. To overcome these problems, the appropriate and latest methods/techniques should be applied, which have been described in this book in details.

The book is organized into different chapters. The book consists total eighteen chapters, which start with chapter 1 introduction to forensic science and evidence. Chapters 2 & 3 specially described the collection of different types of digital evidence including hard disks, mobiles, CCTV footages, DVR, digital images, and audio/video samples. The collection of digital evidence from the cloud storage and device’s RAM is a challenge at present, which is described in chapter-4.

The remaining Chapters 5 to 18 consist the details about the other evidence materials such as handwriting & document, biological, DNA, ballistics, fingerprints, footprints, trace evidence (paint, soil, glass, etc), building material, precious metals,  suicide, and homicide/suicide cases,  vehicle accident, fire & arson, explosives, poisons, alcohols, copyright products, counterfeit currency, precious metals & gemstones.

I hope this book sheds light on the procedures/methods of evidence identification & collection and would be very helpful to the forensic scientists/police officers/academicians/ students, who are directly/indirectly associated with forensic science and criminal investigation. I will try for easy availability of this book for all. I eagerly invited suggestions in all respect for improving the contents of the book in the next edition.