Long wait for justice for victims at Oting

January 17, 2022 55 Views No Comment

Staff Reporter DIMAPUR, JAN 17 (NPN) : Many serious crimes in the state are stuck for months or even years, as charge sheets cannot be prepared due to pending reports of forensic analysis on material evidences from the crime scene(s).

To highlight this issue, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) instituted on December 5, 2021 by the state government to probe the Oting Massacre that took place on December 4, 2021 was to submit its report within a month. The SIT could only submit its “preliminary report” to the Nagaland government on January 9.

As reported, ADG (L&O) Sandeep Tamgadge, who was also supervising the SIT, had said that the SIT will submit its final report once it gets inputs from the Central Forensics Science Laboratory (CFSL) at Guwahati and Hyderabad.

The one-month timeline of the SIT ended on January 5.

Forensic experts from the Guwahati and Hyderabad Forensic Science Laboratories had reportedly collected material evidences from the site during December 21-22, 2021.

It appears that “justice” as demanded over the Oting massacre will have to be played out in other states. There is no guarantee when the FSL reports of the Oting Massacre will be completed due to the fact that reports of states where the labs are located, generally get priority.

One official, speaking on condition of anonymity speculated that the Forensics Science Laboratory report could take another month or two.

The official also said that the Oting incident was a very sensitive issue with the Centre (Home ministry) and the onus should be with the state government to press for early completion of the FSL report.

The official also lamented that while the state government talked about improving the functioning of the law enforcement agency (notably police) very little has been done on the ground to prove sincerity and seriousness.

The official cited the issue of Nagaland still not having an operational Forensic Science Laboratory and police have to send material evidence for analysis to either Kolkata, Guwahati or Hyderabad.

Nagaland has shown little interest in setting up of a Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) even decades after the Forensic department was established. Most of the other North Eastern states already have operational FSL which analyse and provide report on material evidences.

Assam has two functional FSL at Guwahati and Jorhat and recently the state government has sanctioned four more FSLs at Assam Medical College and Hospital (AMCH) at Dibrugarh; Silchar Medical College and Hospital, Tezpur Medical College and Hospital and Bongaigaon Civil Hospital.

Meghalaya established its Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in January 1987; Mizoram in 2000; Arunachal in 2018; Tripura in 2002 and Manipur in 2009.

FSLs are considered a must for investigation and prosecution of crimes. FSLs analyse Biology/DNA (including CODIS); Explosives; Fire debris; Trace evidence; Firearms/toolmarks; Latent prints; Toxicology (including blood alcohol) and Controlled substances.

Source: http://www.nagalandpost.com/long-wait-for-justice-for-victims-at-oting/248574.html