The department — which had over 50,000 cases pending tests in laboratories across the state — has brought them down to just around 15,000.
In a major relief to the police and investigation agencies, the Directorate of Forensic Science Laboratories (DFSL) has managed to do away with a huge backlog of pending cases in almost all of it's departments. The department — which had over 50,000 cases pending tests in laboratories across the state — has brought them down to just around 15,000.
Senior officials from the DFSL said the backlog had been reduced to zero in seven of the 10 divisions except cyber forensics, biology, and DNA. The pendency in these these departments will be done away with by December, after which it plans to give out the forensic reports in 45 days time to the police, thus aiding investigations and enabling speedier convictions.
"We studied the monthly disposal rate and backlog and accordingly projected our manpower requirements to the state government. We plan to do away with pending cases in all departments by December. This has been already achieved in some laboratories," said SP Yadav, Director General of Police (legal and technical), adding that some samples were pending analysis for almost seven to eight years.
Yadav stated that in the cyber forensics division, they had manpower but lacked sufficient equipment; they had deployed permanent and contractual staff in two shifts.
A DFSL official said they had just 14,969 cases on August-end as against 50,000 in January. "There is zero pendency in the forensic labs at Nanded, Kolhapur, and Amravati. We have some backlog in DNA and cyber forensics due to the large number of cases being sent for analysis. We get around 3,000 cases every year for cyber forensic testing, 50,000 cases for biology, and 6,000 for DNA analysis. The department recruited over 700 people on contract in December 2017, which sped up the work," he added.
The state government has also approved five mini labs with divisions for toxicology and biology at Thane, Solapur, Dhule, Chandrapur, and Ratnagiri, the official said. The labs will start operating this year and ensure that police units get samples tested before their quality is compromised or affected. These decentralised testing facilities will also reduce pendencies.
It plans to eventually run the FSLs on a 24X7 basis like emergency services such as hospitals, police and the fire brigade.
Maharashtra has a state-level forensic science laboratory in Mumbai and seven across the state (Nagpur, Pune, Nashik, Amravati, Nanded, Kolhapur, and Aurangabad). It has DNA testing facilities in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik, and Aurangabad. The state government has deployed 45 mobile forensic support units in each of the nine police commissionerates and 36 district police headquarters.
TO HELP THE COPS
Five mini labs with divisions for toxicology and biology will come up in Thane, Solapur, Dhule, Chandrapur, Ratnagiri. The labs will start operating this year and ensure that samples get tested before their quality is compromised or affected.
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