A young man, his hands donning white surgical gloves, holds a slightly moistened cotton swab. He scans for residue from a bullet hole on the door of the white Creta car parked at Tilak Nagar police station. The “hand picking” — a delicate and painstaking work by a forensic examiner — isn’t just science, it’s an art, where perfection is an absolute necessity.
It is 10 am and their first crime scene of the day. Last night, they were at another crime scene till 2.30 am to collect evidence in a rape case.
FSL Rohini is the biggest among the four forensic labs in Delhi which deal with thousands of cases every month. The others are CFSL (Central Forensic Science Lab) and two state FSLs — one more in Rohini and one in Chanakyapuri. Across India, there are 117 forensic labs – Tamil Nadu has the highest number with 11, Maharashtra has nine, Andhra Pradesh has eight, Gujarat and Rajasthan have seven each, and Uttar Pradesh has five, according to data from a Project 39A report titled Forensic Science India report: a study of forensic science labs (2013-2017).
The Rohini lab’s workload has increased exponentially over the years. In 2005, experts from FSL Rohini visited six crime scenes. In 2023, they visited 1,144. Since April this year, forensic experts from this facility have already visited 3,878 crime scenes.
Come Monday, once the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) replaces the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), forensic experts may have a lot more on their plate.
For one, forensic evidence will be central to criminal investigation and jurisprudence. The BNSS makes forensic investigation mandatory for offences punishable with seven years of imprisonment or more. Earlier, there were no statutory requirements on crime scene management, and the practice for evidence collection varied across states.
In fact, it was the prerogative of an investigating officer to decide whether to seek evidence collection by forensic experts.
BNSS also expands the powers of magistrates to order forensic evidence collection — both widening the ambit of individuals from whom the evidence can be gathered from and the type of evidence that can be collected.
All hands on deck
Situated at Madhuban Chowk, FSL Rohini has a strength of 390, including 63 forensic experts covering around 45 to 60 crime spots daily. The lab deals with around 800 cases a month.
According to data on the FSL Rohini website, it has received 2.05 lakh cases between its inception in 1995 and March 31, 2023. Among them, 1.79 lakh cases have been “disposed of” – a “disposal rate of almost 90%”.
Division Head of Crime Scene Management at FSL Rohini, Sanjeev Kumar Gupta, acknowledges that there will be a significant increase in their crime scene visits after the new laws are implemented. “There are 63 scientific experts deployed at 15 Delhi Police district mobile vans. These days, we’re working to streamline the district-level mobile forensic crime scene teams to handle the changing scenario,” he says. “I hope that after the new rules come into effect, we will be able to meet the requirements.”
The lab also happens to cater to a city where crime, and its reporting, is rampant. According to data released by the National Crime Records Bureau in December 2023, Delhi recorded over 11,400 violent crimes in 2022, including 5,641 cases of kidnapping, 1,808 cases of robbery, and 785 attempted murders. With 509 murder cases, Delhi recorded the highest number of homicides among all metropolitan cities. It also topped in cases of crime against women among 19 metros in the country.
To be sure, the administration has taken some steps to strengthen the Rohini facility. In January, Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena approved the restructuring of the FSL, which led to the creation of 420 new posts at the facility. It has also conducted special workshops on the new laws.
“I don’t know what will happen after July 1 when the new laws are implemented,” says the forensic expert from the lab. “…but our laboratory is prepared. Training programmes will be on till everyone is well-versed with the new laws,” he added.
“In view of the new criminal laws, as per the notification of the Home Ministry, all states have to develop and enhance the forensic investigation facilities in the coming five years,” another forensic expert told the Indian Express stating that the government had started taking the necessary steps to tackle the situation after the implementation of the laws.
Devil in the details
This work they do is on full display as forensic experts help with the case in which two men allegedly fired gunshots outside a car showroom in West Delhi’s Tilak Nagar, injuring BJP functionary Vikas Tyagi and six others inside the shop. Back at the Tilak Nagar police station, one of the forensic examiners inserts a trajectory rod in the bullet hole. His aim, he says, is to ascertain the path of the bullet that had hit the person sitting in the vehicle. The team carefully places the fragment inside an “illumination kit”.
After collecting 30 exhibits — bullet residue, bloodstains collected using cotton swabs and placed in small containers to avoid contamination, the car’s floor mats — they hand it over to a sub-inspector and head to the crime scene – the car showroom where the shooting took place.
Across the 15 districts in Delhi, these experts visit approximately 60 such crime spots every day. With a masters’ in forensic sciences, they sometimes spend up to six hours at a single scene.
The evidence, once handed to the IO, is sent to the lab for examination – such as matching a bullet with a gun. “Cartridges are unique… a mark on the head of each bullet is different – just like fingerprints,” a forensic expert says.
The Biology Department examines the evidence to ascertain the identity of a person, victim or perpetrator. Other divisions at FSL Rohini include chemistry (explosives), DNA profiling, toxicology and cyber forensics, where experts analyse mobile phones, computers, etc.
Explaining the rigours of their work, a forensic expert says at times, blood from five to six different people is gathered from a single crime scene.
“The DNA profiling of each sample takes four to six hours and examining the samples could take one to two days,” he says. “There are always pending samples because of the work and their numbers keep increasing.”
The new annexe building of the Forensic Science Laboratory at Rohini. (Express Photo by Nirbhay Thakur) 
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