Burari effect: Delhi gets psychological autopsy unit at FSL

THE NEW UNIT IS AN UPGRADED VERSION OF THE ALREADY EXISTING FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY DIVISION WHICH HAD BECOME DEFUNCT

NEW DELHI: In the wake of the Burari mass suicide, the Delhi government has set up a psychological autopsy unit at its Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Rohini and also designed a special sample collection kit to be used by police for heinous crimes.

Officials of the home department said that the government felt the need for introducing a psychological autopsy unit in the national capital after 11 members of a family committed suicide in north-west Delhi’s Burari in July this year. “In cases such as the Burari mass suicide and heinous crimes against women and children, a scientific analysis of psychological factors that lead to the crime is extremely essential. In Burari’s case, the Delhi Police had to depend on a facility in Ahmedabad and another one under the CBI’S control. But, now we are fully equipped to handle such cases,” said a senior government official on condition of anonymity.

The new unit comprising four members is a modified and upgraded version of the already existing forensic psychology division of the FSL, which over the years had become defunct. “The old unit stopped functioning as it was equipped to only perform polygraph examinations, which have now become outdated and unscientific. For the new unit, the government will now purchase a ‘suspect detection system’ instead,” the official said.

NEW FORENSIC KIT

To improve the methods of collection and storage of forensic samples from crime scenes, the government has also finalised a special kit that would be given to investigative officers (IOS) and government’s own teams from the FSL. “The new kits have special swab storage containers which dry out the samples on their own. From scissors, syringes, blood sample bottles and nail cutters, the kit will have every essential item needed for sample collection,” an official from the home department said.

Currently, swabs and items from a crime scene are taken in a very unscientific way. “Heinous crimes are handled carefully. For other crimes, they put it in packets that are taken to the hospital where the samples are dried. But, the samples get bacteria attached while in transit and often develop moulds. This makes it really time consuming for extracting the DNA,” the official said.

With the new kits, the government said it hopes samples could be saved for a long time. It said the kits would help in cases where an accused is found years later and the samples need to be matched then.