Fingerprint identification: India
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2015: Gujarat best, UP among worst
Unlike movies and crime TV serials, where police successfully trace and nab criminals on the basis of fingerprints collected from crime scenes, the real picture in Uttar Pradesh is quite different. According to the latest data released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), out of 1,130 sets of fingerprint samples collected from crime scenes in the state, police have managed to identify and trace only one accused.
According to UP police, in 2015, a person was arrested from Tha kurganj area of Lucknow after a fingerprint expert successfully managed to get a match with a fingerprint retrieved from a home which was broken into. Investigators matched the collected sample with their database and zeroed in on a perpetrator.
A senior official in the finger prints section of the forensic cell in Agra said, “The major reason behind the failure in tracing perpetrators on the basis on fingerprints is the absence of a proper digital mechanism to save data or fingerprints retrieved from a crime scene.“
Uttar Pradesh is among the 20 states and Union territories which do not have Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) which can help them to store forensic evidence of this type and access it whenever it is required.
The official said, “Apart from a proper digital mechanism, the fin gerprints sent to the laboratory in Lucknow are not of good quality .Often the crime scene is contaminated by the presence of policemen and relatives, who are not trained to secure fingerprints or other forensic evidence left behind by perpetrators.“
In contrast, Gujarat police suc cessfully traced 71,854 suspects from 2,94,971 fingerprints retrieved by them from crime scenes, followed by Karnataka with 45,224; Maharashtra with 7,589; Delhi with 6,928; Rajasthan with 5,427; Telangana with 2,480; Madhya Pradesh with 2,279 and Andhra Pradesh with 1,169.
