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Updated on: Tuesday, October 18, 2011

For the first time a Delhi University (DU) college has trained personnel from the military police branch of the Indian Army. The forensic science unit of Shri Guru Teg Bahadur (SGTB) Khalsa College, DU, recently completed the training of 24 military police personnel in less than three months.

"The army wishes to start its own forensic science laboratory in Bengaluru in January 2012, for which, they require trained personnel who can train others in future. The military police gets to examine cases of forgery, alleged fake encounters, fake currency, unnatural deaths, etc, and till now, refers cases to the Central Forensic Science Lab, which takes a long time to deliver reports. In order to save time and also have trained personnel for their forensic lab, the military police branch of the Indian Army approached us," says GS Sodhi, associate professor and coordinator, Forensic Science Unit, SGTB Khalsa College.

Talking about the areas covered during the training, Sodhi says that the syllabus was made relevant to what the personnel have to deal with in the field. "We covered areas like ballistics, explosives, arson, DNA documentation, forensic toxicology, poison and drug abuse, etc. The classes combined both theory and practicals. For three days a week, classes were held at SGTB Khalsa College and for two days, the personnel would go to the CBI labs and have their practical classes. They studied together with the postgraduate students of the diploma programme ," says Sodhi.

"We once created a simulation of an accident between a car and an army truck. All students were required to work together. While some students managed the crowd, some examined tyre marks, while others examined headlights , the angle of the wheel, etc. It was interesting and students learnt a lot," informs Sodhi.

Besides the faculty of Khalsa, other experts were also invited to conduct classes in fingerprinting, photography, crime scene management etc.

Vimal Rarh, head of the department of chemistry, SGTB Khalsa College, who taught computer skills for forensic science, says, "The military police personnel were very eager to learn. They came back to college after many years and yet were able to learn and apply the techniques in different situations innovatively."

Subedar Naresh Kumar from the military police who took the training, says, "I went back to a college after 25 years. It was an interesting experience. I examined documents for forgery, fake currencies, etc. The training at Khalsa College has helped me in collecting evidence, identifying a genuine document from a forged one, etc. It was a very useful session for us."

Times of India

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