Fingerprint Bureau short of hands

The Delhi Police's Fingerprint Bureau, which has been battling staff shortage for quite some time, has written to the police chief to urgently fill up vacancies to efficiently deal with the rising number of cases.

Senior officers of the Bureau said cases were piling up and the existing staff members were hard-pressed to analyse and provide case reports on time. Sources said at least 50 posts of sub-inspectors and assistant sub-inspectors (ASI) were vacant.

"At least 30 ASI's are needed at the Bureau for routine tasks such as sample collection and analysis of evidence. We are functioning with almost half the sanctioned strength for a long time," an officer said.

"In case of sub-inspectors, the condition is even worse. Against a sanctioned strength of 15, there is only one," the officer said.

He said the Bureau has been forced to juggle its staff from one district to another to collect samples because of the paucity of manpower. Sources said several requests were made to senior Crime Branch officers over the past months to deploy more staff to the Bureau.

The Bureau, with its main office in Central Delhi's Kamla Market, reports to the Crime Branch. The department also has the responsibility to archive fingerprints from crime scenes.

ALSO READ

To beat cancer, Stanford professor reaches out to Keralites in Delhi and elsewhere

Woman alleges gang-rape by husband, in-laws

3 more cases of minors rape reported in Delhi

Aarushi's phone was used after murder, claims CBI officer