Punjab: Lock to govt chemical lab found broken, probe is on

The lab at Kharar

In a security lapse that the Home department is still assessing for any damage it might have caused to investigations in criminal cases from across Punjab, the lock to a government chemical laboratory at Kharar where viscera and other samples from various cases are stored was found broken on April 19. The samples were to be shifted to a new building nearby where the lab had moved some months ago, but the samples continued to remain in the old lab. The incident, The Indian Express has learnt, was reported to the police after a class IV employee went to the room where samples were kept and found the lock broken. No case has been registered as of now though. Kharar city Station House Officer Inspector Satnam Singh said investigations were on after officials informed the police. The Punjab Home department, under which the lab functions, is in the process of seeking a report from the Chemical Examiner about a loss, if any, of samples from the lab. “I will first seek the details and can say anything only after I go through the details,” said Punjab Home Secretary N S Kalsi.

Chemical Examiner at the lab, Dr Varindra Singh, said she had been on medical leave for some days, but was told about the incident by the staff. Assistant Chemical Engineer Dr Harjinder Singh said there was shortage of space for the lab in the new building and that was the reason not all samples were shifted. “Majority of the samples had been shifted. We had shifted Vigilance Bureau records and policemen are manning that place. Only a small part of the total samples were there which were to be shifted from the room of which the lock was broken,” said Dr Harjinder. “I can confirm on Tuesday only if any samples are missing or not, as we are in the process of checking the records. Since we receive samples from across the state, it will take time to cross-check the records,” he said.

On that day, the class IV employee went to collect some samples which were to be issued for testing when the lock was found to be broken. “We issue 25 to 30 samples for testing. The employee had gone to bring the samples which were to be issued for testing,” he said. Dr Harjinder said “nothing appeared to have been taken away”, but suspected that breaking the lock could be handiwork of someone who came for NDPS Act cases samples which were no longer being received or tested at the centre.

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“We had stopped receiving samples of NDPS cases since October 15, 2016, on the directions of the government after setting up of three regional testing laboratories at Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana. Such samples were tested by Forensic Science Laboratory Mohali and here at Chemical Lab in Kharar. We primarily used to cater to areas in and around Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana and after the regional testing centres were set up there, government directed our lab not to accept the NDPS cases samples,” he said. Viscera samples, rape case swabs and liquor samples from across the state are tested in the Kharar laboratory.

The lab was in news a few years back also when a number of its officials, including the then Assistant Chemical Engineer Dr Rajwinderpal Singh who was the in-charge, along with a number of other employees including lab technician and class IV were booked in a case of tampering with reports and preparing fake reports in the NDPS Act cases, allegedly to support drug accused in the court cases. In the case, the trial of which is still on, a Mohali court had framed charges against 16 accused in August 2014.