The Delhi police’s decision to send viscera samples of Sunanda Pushkar abroad to ascertain the poison that allegedly killed her has raised doubts about the forensic capability of Indian labs.
“While we take pride in the successful Mangalyaan mission, it is a matter of grave concern that when it comes to a simple job of identifying a poison, the police have to send samples outside the country,” the former Delhi Police Commissioner, Neeraj Kumar, said. “In other countries, investigations are forensic-driven. Crime scenes are first examined by forensic experts and most cases are cracked because of abundance of forensic evidence. However, we do not have access to such level of expertise. The focus should be on augmenting the forensic capability of labs,” he said.
The police suspect that the poison responsible for Sunanda Pushkar’s death could be a radioactive isotope, probably polonium 210, which is 2.5 lakh times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide.
Terming inappropriate the decision to send the samples abroad, Gandhi P.C. Kaza, chairman of the country’s first independent forensic science laboratory Truth Labs, said: “Although our forensic laboratories are not well equipped to conduct Pico-level examination, they have highly advanced equipment. The Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, receives samples from the World Health Organization.”
Dr. Gandhi said the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Defence Research and Development Organisation, the Department of Atomic Energy, ISRO, BARC and other such agencies had a large pool of scientists and expertise, besides advanced equipment. These could have easily detected polonium 210 from the blood, urine or other visceral materials collected during post-mortem.
“However, polonium being a rare material used in homicide cases, none of the forensic laboratories in the world will have its reference standards for readily testing and identifying the poison. Radioactive isotopes like polonium, which emit alpha particles, are the rarest of the rare material that are not tested routinely. One has to acquire both standard reference material and the technique and expertise to process, analyse and interpret the result,” he said.
“At a time when the Indian Science Congress is in session [in Mumbai], which was inaugurated by the Prime Minister who applauded the achievements of the country’s scientists, referring such cases abroad may not be an appropriate step,” he said.
