Crime investigation van, a boon for Navi Mumbai cops

NAVI MUMBAI: The crime investigation van, inaugurated around three weeks ago, has been proved a big help for the city police in terms of collecting evidences from the crime spots.

As soon as the police learn about a major crime, the van and the team of officials trained by forensic lab authorities reach the spot and collect evidences scientifically.

“So far, the team has collected evidences of seven crimes in Navi Mumbai,” a senior police officer said.

“Due to lack of equipment, the evidences were not properly collected from the crime spots. At times, the cases made by the investigating officers were not strong and culprits went scot free because of the loopholes. However, the new crime investigation van is well-equipped to lift, pack and seal evidences,” said Dilip Sawant, deputy commissioner of police ( crime).

The 13 officers appointed and trained for the team work in two shifts.

“After reaching a spot, the first thing the team does is to barricade the crime scene to ensure that not a single piece of evidence is tampered with.

The second step is to take photographs and videos of the crime scenes so that they could be used at a later stage.

Lifting, packaging and sealing evidences come only at the third stage,” said police sub- inspector SK Bachchao, in- charge of the van.

After collecting evidences and finger prints, the team hands them over to the investigating officers of the respective police stations.

They also send them to the forensic lab if they feel it is necessary.

“Since only trained of f i - cials are collecting evidence scientifically, cases are bound to be stronger and thus we can expect a big change i n the rate of conviction,” Bachchao said.

Since only trained officials are collecting evidence scientifically, cases are bound to be stronger and thus we can expect a big change in the rate of conviction

SK BACHAO, SUB-INSPECTOR, in-charge of the van