Funds or no funds?: Punjab’s forensic labs mired in conflicting allegations after series of director’s flip-flops

On January 21, the court asked the Chief Secretary to provide details of government spending on advertisements and police vehicles between April 1, 2024, and January 20, 2025. The government quickly responded, and on January 31, then Home Secretary Gurkirat Kirpal Singh told the court that Dr Kalia’s statement appeared to be made “out of sheer inadvertence or lack of knowledge.” Dr Kalia was issued a show cause notice for misleading the court.

Now, a fresh twist: less than three months later, in response to an RTI query by The Indian Express, Dr Kalia stated on April 3, 2025, that no separate funds were allocated to regional labs for the financial years 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25. As a result, no money was released or spent on salaries, infrastructure or upgradation of these labs, the RTI reply said.

However, in another reply sent online on April 9, his office said that although funds are received only for the main FSL in Mohali, procurement for the regional labs is done from that central pool. The same reply listed detailed allocations for 2024-25, including Rs 28.15 crore for machinery and Rs 7.45 crore for salaries, among other heads.

Punjab has a main Forensic Science Laboratory in Mohali and a Chemical Examiner Laboratory in Kharar. Three regional labs have also been made functional in Bathinda, Ludhiana, and Amritsar, but their testing capabilities remain limited.

When contacted by The Indian Express, Dr Kalia reversed his earlier stand. He said the labs do receive funds—centrally allocated—for all operations, including regional labs. “I thought your RTI was asking whether there were separate funds for regional labs. We receive central funds, and Rs 57 crore has already been allocated this fiscal,” he said. He claimed Rs 28 crore had been spent so far, including Rs 12.15 crore on cyber forensics and Rs 14 crore on NDPS-related equipment.

But these figures don’t align with the state’s official affidavit submitted in court, which listed Rs 62 lakh for legal science material, and Rs 36 crore for strengthening DNA and cyber forensic facilities. That document, too, was signed by Dr Kalia.

The availability of funds for forensics has assumed greater importance with the implementation of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), under which forensic evidence is mandatory in serious crimes to ensure better investigations and higher conviction rates.

When asked why he told the High Court that funds weren’t available, Dr Kalia said he may have misunderstood the judges’ question. He confirmed receiving a show cause notice and said he had responded to it. Sources said no action was taken against him after his reply.

Interestingly, in a request to recall the court’s order on government spending, Gurkirat Kirpal Singh had stated that Dr Kalia was not competent to comment on budget availability. As FSL Director, he was only a departmental head and not involved in budget allocation, which is decided by the state government.

“There is no shortage of funds for the FSLs,” the government stated in its affidavit. “In fact, the budget allocation has consistently exceeded the actual expenditure each year.” The affidavit also accused Dr Kalia of failing to utilise funds meant for upgrading forensic equipment over the last three years and asked him to explain why.

The case that triggered it all the confusion over FSL funding came up during a High Court hearing in a bail petition filed by Vinay Kumar, arrested in a Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) case at Sarhali police station in Tarn Taran district.

Kumar’s lawyer alleged that he was picked up on September 14, 2023, but shown as arrested two days later. The defence submitted CCTV footage to support this.

The court asked the state to verify the footage, but the police told the court that the CD had been sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Chandigarh, for analysis, as Punjab’s own labs lacked the capability to examine it.

“This court was at a dismay to know that in Punjab, the facility to examine the CD or any other video clip is not available,” the bench noted, referring to the main FSL in Mohali and the three RFSLs in Amritsar, Bathinda, and Ludhiana.