Thumbs-down to fingerprints in Karnataka

Practice that once defined crime probes now rarely used.

The fate of many a crime real and imagined,from the theft of Da Vincis Mona Lisa to serial killers,from Sherlock Holmes to Mark Twain has had the key to its mystery hung on the ubiquitous fingerprint.

Once considered the bedrock of crime investigation,fingerprinting of suspects and criminals is,however,no longer a rigorous practice,at least in Karnataka,despite the availability of advanced automatic database systems. The situation has forced the police top brass in the state to send out diktats to all their units to document fingerprints vigorously and to make maximum use of advances in IT-enabled fingerprint storage and retrieval systems.

According to the findings of a recent study done by the office of the director general of police in Karnataka,fingerprint experts are not being called into crime scenes despite the existence of bureaus across the state. Also,fingerprints of arrested and convicted persons are not being entered into a database,which has ten-digit fingerprints for over 2.5 lakh criminal record holders and which can be accessed with a Japanese,state-of-the-art automatic fingerprint identification system AFIS in use in the state.

A detailed review of the functioning of the Fingerprint Bureau shows that the potential of the computerised AFIS is not being effectively harnessed by the units8230; Similarly the personnel deployed at the Fingerprint Units at the district and range levels are not being utilised to the optimum, says a circular issued from the office of the state police chief.

We need technical experts to visit crime scenes. We found that visits are not adequate, says Karnatakas director-general of police S T Ramesh.

According to joint of commissioner of police crime in Bangalore,Alok Kumar,fingerprint bureaus are called into action in most property offences and murders in urban areas but there is greater reluctance in the districts because of distances. Fingerprints are valuable evidence in courts and convictions can still be won or lost on fingerprints, he says.

In the West,where DNA tests have assumed great importance,there have been questions raised over continuing with existing fingerprint retrieval techniques that can potentially mar DNA evidence. On the flip side,swabbing for DNA wipes away fingerprints.

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Still,fingerprints are the most commonly gathered forensic evidence worldwide.