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CLUES teams in state bereft of scientific officer
It is appalling to see the Crime Laboratory Ultimate Evidence System (CLUES) team in the Telangana state functioning with only one scientific officer. Only Hyderabad CLUES team is having a scientific officer along with two sub-inspectors, two police constables and two home guards. The other districts do not have any scientific officers and had to rely on the city’s scientific officer during major crimes.
Hyderabad: It is appalling to see the Crime Laboratory Ultimate Evidence System (CLUES) team in the Telangana state functioning with only one scientific officer. Only Hyderabad CLUES team is having a scientific officer along with two sub-inspectors, two police constables and two home guards. The other districts do not have any scientific officers and had to rely on the city’s scientific officer during major crimes.
Normally a CLUES Team, recruited by Forensic Science Laboratory, comprises of a scientific officer, an analyst, a technician, a photographer-cum-videographer and fingerprints expert. Other than the scientific officer, the other team members are police personnel. The scientific officer acts as a scientific advisor to the SP/CP concerned in all matters relating to scientific criminal investigation processes.
Sources at the CCS said that the districts' CLUES teams are just meaningless because they do not have any scientific officers. “The teams only have sub-inspectors, constables and home guards who have little or no knowledge of scientific evidence. With one scientific officer for the whole of the state is a sad feature.
Each team should have a scientific officer to quicken the pace of work. The other team members should have minimum knowledge of science and physical evidence or else should be trained in that field,” scientific officer, Dr Venkanna said adding that there is severe staff crunch in Hyderabad and even 20 teams would be less for the city as the crime offences are going up in the city.
Taking Hyderabad Commissionerate into consideration with 5 zones, 17 divisions and 63 police stations, only one CLUES team caters to the identification and collection of physical evidence from the crime scene. "Several proposals have been sent in the past to the higher-ups pointing out the severe staff crunch, but nothing happened till date.
Whenever any major crime incident occurs in the city, investigation officers have to wait for hours for the CLUES team to arrive at the spot. There is all likelihood the crime scene getting contaminated or destruction of evidences by the time the team reaches the spot,” the scientific officer said adding the CP Hyderabad is pursuing the matter with senior officials.
By:Victor Rao
