City anchor: DU students hope to patent new kit to lift fingerprints

When students of Delhi University's SGTB Khalsa College went on a weekly visit to the crime lab of the Delhi Police, it was to watch the forensic experts in action and study the techniques used in analysing crime scene data.

But the visit turned beneficial for the Delhi Police as the young brains came up with a new method for fingerprint analysis.

"Our students go to the crime lab every Saturday as part of a diploma course in forensic sciences. These trips revealed that even though the police have costly imported equipment — some worth Rs 1 lakh — they do not have the expertise to use it. We realised the police have separate composition kits to lift prints from various surfaces such as glass, CDS and metal," G S Sodhi, a faculty adviser from Khalsa College, said.

The students decided to make matters more simple and came up with a single composition kit that can be used to lift prints from any type of surface.

Around 10 students of Chemistry (H) and Zoology (H) prepared the fluorescent powder compositions for developing latent fingerprints. They are now looking to patent their their project.

Indigenous and non-toxic in nature, this composition does not require a sophisticated instrument or costly equipment, one of the students said.

"The single composition kit can lift fingerprints from arson sites and even crime scenes where water was used to remove evidence," Vaishali Jain, second- year student of Zoology (H) who has been working on the project, said.

"In a conventional crime scene, you can get fingerprints from various surfaces. However, there are times when a person may try to destroy evidence by setting things ablaze. In some cases, weapons might be buried or thrown in water. If this evidence reaches the crime lab within 12 hours, this composition can retrieve prints from them," she said.

... contd.

ALSO READ

37 years on, Urdu school faces second eviction

Civic agencies could lose Rs 100 crore a year if Haryana buys Rajokri toll plaza: Delhi chief secy

Ghalib returns home, his haveli opens today as public memorial

Cross at your own risk