Gandhi drives India’s first pvt forensic lab

"The idea behind Truth Labs is to provide affordable forensic science services to the common man. The common man even today cannot go confidently to the police and the court to get justice in reasonable time. This I saw coming through in all the four decades of my career. I thought I should do something with my abilities, expertise and background,'' says Kaza.

"Before setting up Truth Labs I had considered working for the revival of truth as a national character in India. I initially founded the Truth Foundation as a non-profit society. Truth Labs is one of the initiatives of the foundation. I don't know how far I will be successful,'' he said.

Using a mixture of his networking skills and personal credibility as someone who pioneered the growth of forensic sciences in India during his 15 year stint at APFSL, where he pushed the lab to become the first ISO 9001 quality-certified government department in India, Kaza has managed to convince courts in several states and investigation agencies such as the CBI, NIA, state CIDs and even the CVC to refer cases to Truth Labs.

"At least 100 cases where courts have not been satisfied by the work of state labs have been referred to us. The Prashant Bhushan audio case came to us and the court upheld our report. Video footage in a recent big media row was before us,'' Kaza said. Banks, insurance companies and corporates who like to avoid messy public investigations are among other users of Truth Labs' services.

Kaza, who early in his career turned down a job offer at the NYPD, says forensic sciences in India is at least 20 years behind that in developed countries. Five years into its existence, Truth Labs, which charges Rs 5,000 for any service, has been able to break even only in Hyderabad and Delhi.

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