KARACHI, June 14 In a much-delayed move that aims at modernising the outdated conventional police investigation process, lifting fingerprints from crime-scenes of at least five offences has been declared mandatory by the police authorities, Dawn has learnt.
Surprisingly, fingerprints were not being obtained from any crime-scene until the issuance of the fresh directives.
Officials said under the revised standard operating procedure, the city police chief has issued written orders, directing all the three zonal DIGs to devise and implement a mechanism in their respective jurisdictions through which the fingerprint lifting teams of the forensic division are called at any crime-scene of five offences for assistance.
The five offences include homicide, house robberies, burglaries and bank robberies. Lifting fingerprints from snatched/stolen vehicles and those used in any kidnapping for ransom case was also declared mandatory.
A source citing the fresh directives said that under the new arrangements, the zonal DIGs had also been directed to make it compulsory for their wireless and telephone operators to inform the forensic division about any incident falling in the category of the five particular offences.
Similarly, he said, the DIGs had been asked to put in place a proper monitoring system where the crimes data should be collected on a weekly and monthly basis and see whether the crime-scene units of the forensic division were called or not.
He said the fresh move was a part of recent overhauling of police investigation system, which had deteriorated over the years mainly due to the lack of resources and unprofessional approach of the investigators.
“One can not rule out the importance of fingerprints in the process of investigations, but unfortunately it has never been given such importance in our system of probes,” he added.
People at the helm of affairs said that the system had already become operational after a recent meeting of senior officials.
“It has been decided that the teams of fingerprint experts will visit all scenes of crime in murder, burglary, house robbery, bank robbery and abandoned vehicles cases,” said AIG Criminalistic Division Abdul Khaliq Shaikh. “The teams are kept standby in the Garden office of the forensic division round-the-clock to ensure this practice.”
Lifting fingerprints from the crime-scene is the second effort that aims at modernising the investigation process. The city police personnel had already been required to include fingerprint cards in investigation case files to enforce the practice of obtaining fingerprints from suspects.
The new procedures says that the investigation SP will not approve a case for a charge-sheet if a fingerprint card has not been prepared, except in cases charge-sheeted under Section 512 of the criminal procedure code.
“We have all due expertise and resources to extract fingerprints from scenes-of-crime,” claims the head of ciminalistic division. “We are the premier investigation agency which has been given elaborate powers under the criminal procedure code and such practice would definitely make these powers effective and enhance their utility.”
He said the modern trend of investigation and technological support would definitely help in eliminating outdated conventional methods of police probes and would yield better results. Increased reliance on forensics would help in making investigations more accurate and fruitful, he added.
“We are also in the process of purchasing latest equipment for forensic examination, which would add value to the overall process,” he said.
