Govt aims to make forensic teams' site visit mandatory in crimes that attract over 6-year jail: Shah

Amit Shah was addressing a gathering at the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) at Dharbandora village in South Goa.

Panaji:Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said the government aims to make it mandatory for forensic teams to visit the scene of crimes that attract imprisonment of more than six years.

He also said that there is paucity of trained manpower in the field of forensic science, which affects the conviction rates and leads to piling up of cases.

Shah was addressing a gathering at the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) at Dharbandora village in South Goa.

"We need to create fear in the mind of hardened criminals that they will be behind bars. To do this, you need trained manpower in forensic science, which is in shortage," he said.

The aim is to ensure that the visit of forensic team would be mandatory in those crimes that attract more than six years of imprisonment, he added.

"To do this, we should have teams in all 600 districts of the country. In all the districts, there should be smaller forensic science labouratories and at each DySP-level (Deputy Superintendent of Police), there should be a mobile forensic van," the minister said.

In order to set up this kind of infrastructure, there is a requirement of 30,000 to 40,000 people, he said.

"How can we create such an infrastructure?...That is why we require institutions providing forensic education," Shah said.

He said the world's first forensic science university was conceived in Gujarat when Narendra Modi was the chief minister.

"I am honoured that I was home minister (of Gujarat) at that time in his cabinet and even now when the National Forensic Science University is launched, I am home minister," he said.

PTI