Days after the reports highlighted the importance of a fully operational Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Nagaland, particularly in light of the delay in the SIT report on the Oting massacre, the Nagaland Forensic Science Association (NFSA) has come out to voice the importance of a fully operational FSL, particularly in the interest of ensuring justice in the Oting incident.

It may be noted that the SIT report on the Oting massacre is being delayed unnecessarily due to the lack of an FSL report on the analysis of material evidence obtained at the Oting atrocity locations. The analysis is being carried out at FSLs in Guwahati and Hyderabad.

NFSA president Rito Chophi and general secretary Avibunuo Wezah emphasized that, in light of rising crime, Nagaland urgently requires a fully operational, independent, and upgraded FSL (to analyze material evidences) staffed with qualified forensic experts, as is the case in other north eastern states.

Nagaland, according to the NFSA, has been sleeping on this issue for far too long, and it is time to wake up and take immediate and essential action. The Association also noted that several states in the area had upgraded their forensic equipment and were making tremendous progress in the sector.

While expressing serious concern about rising criminal cases and massive pending court cases, which are causing delays in justice delivery, the NFSA noted that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had allocated Rs 1,03,802 crore (from the Union Budget 2021-2022 of Rs 1.66 lakh crore) for strengthening police forces and allied organizations.
The NFSA also revealed that the recently created National Forensic Science University and Rashtriya Raksha University had been awarded Rs 60 and Rs 70 crore, respectively, showing the Centre’s commitment to training forensic students to combat crime.

It said that forensic evidence in court aids in proving the commission of a crime, establishing its major aspects, providing a relationship between the relevant entities, identifying an individual, exonerating the innocent, and verifying a victim’s testimony. According to the Association, a judge or jury is more likely to favor with a side that offers convincing evidence to support a party’s guilt or innocence since “facts can not lie, but man can.”

According to the NFSA, a recent PIL filed before the Supreme Court requested that the Centre adopt forensic tools to strengthen inquiry. According to the plea, the petitioners even asked the states to appoint forensic specialists in every district as soon as possible and to appoint at least one forensic expert in each police station.

NFSA therefore said Nagaland “should align itself with the trend, direction and move along with other States.”

It was also said that Nagaland continues to transfer evidence for analysis to FSLs in neighboring states such as Assam. It was stated that because labs prioritize their own states, Nagaland was always given the lowest priority.
According to the NFSA, sending evidence to other FSLs for analysis is a waste of time and money.

It also said that certain biological evidence decayed with time, and hence the integrity of evidence might be called into doubt if it was not gathered, handled, or maintained appropriately. This was one of the reasons that many cases in Nagaland were lost as a result of this.

As a result, the NFSA has firmly asked that suitable forensic professionals be hired and that the present FSL (in Dimapur) be upgraded so that evidence at crime sites may be properly collected and analyzed rapidly.
It further said that lab reports may be created in a single location in a short period of time.

According to the NFSA, Nagaland has one FSL building in Kacharigon, but it is not fully operational due to a lack of important departments such as Forensic Biology, Forensic Chemistry and Toxicology, Forensic Ballistic, and so on, as well as the equipment required at a forensic lab for analysis and report making.

NFSA emphasized the importance of the Oting case, stating that the perpetrators must be brought to justice.
According to the NFSA, the expected examination of evidence in the Oting incident, which fell under ambush-type cases, includes an analysis of firearm evidences using a comparison microscope of controlled and questioned samples, cone fractures in vehicular window panes, possible skid marks in the case of a moving vehicle that was abruptly stopped, and medicolegal evidence determining range of fire, among other things.
According to the NFSA, delays in vital and time-sensitive cases such as Oting simply serve to highlight the delays in justice in other Nagaland crime cases.

It went on to say that until the state created an independent FSL, justice would constantly be delayed or the SIT’s efforts to produce a timely report would fail.

NFSA stated that it was formed in 2018 by a group of graduates with specialized knowledge of forensic science after being concerned about the forensic scenario in the state approached the authorities to make urgent recruitment and also set up a fully functional forensic lab but regretted the lack of response.

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