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During the period from 2001 to 2010 police officials in India were lured by a team of pseudo-scientists, from the Forensic Laboratories in Bangalore and Ahmadabad to make use of narcoanalysis, polygraph test and brain fingerprinting to extract confessions from accused persons. All the three tests, preceded by a pre-test interview and interrogation, were conducted by the one and the same expert (psychologist) one after the other on the pretext that the earlier test suggests confirmation by the next. The tragedy is that final confirmation is made by narcoanalysis the earliest to be rejected by all the civilized nations. This is because, only the report on narcoanalysis will be in the form of narrative verbal statements of the subject (accused) while the reports on the other tests are simply based on electrical responses or nonverbal body behaviours and attitudinal characteristics.

A method is reported for the solid-state fluorodensitometric determination of haptens in hapten—protein conjugates. The applicability of the method is shown using the bovine serum albumin conjugate of cleistanthin B, a toxic glycoside of the plant Cleistanthus collinus. This non-destructive technique, which is relatively simple, sensitive, rapid and versatile, can be used for the determination of protein conjugates of fluorogenic haptens.

Cleistanthus collinus is a highly toxic plant frequently implicated in suicidal and homicidal poisoning cases referred to our laboratory. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is reported in this paper for the quantitation of the active principles of C. collinus. This method is highly reproducible and sensitive to detect as low as 2 ng/ml of cleistanthin B, a toxic constituent of C. collinus. The ELISA can be successfully applied for the specific identification of C. collinus poisoning in clinical and forensic toxicology.

The success of the superimposition technique requires positioning the skull in the same posture of the face as seen in the given photograph. A scientific method for positioning the skull has already been proposed by Sekharan [4]. This-paper deals with the simple remote control tilt and rotatory device developed in the Forensic Sciences Department, Madras. A pan and tilt arrangement usually utilized in surveillance cameras and two a.c. servomotors, one to tilt the pan and the other to rotate the pan are used.

The relative efficiencies of four enzymic digestion procedures and two conventional methods in releasing barbiturates from spiked liver tissue have been compared. The recoveries of these acidic drugs obtained by using papain and neutrase (neutral proteinase from Bacillus subtilis) digestion methods reported now for the first time are higher than those by other enzymatic and conventional methods. These observations are similar to our earlier data on the applicability of these two enzymes to the release of some basic drugs from tissue. Papain digestion gives the maximum recovery of drugs as monitored by HPLC and is the method of choice. The enzymic digestion procedures are relatively simple, inexpensive and yield reproducible results. Analytical procedures for use in routine forensic toxicological analysis are presented.

A high-pressure liquid chromatographic system is described for the separation of few arylnaphthalide lignan lactones. An octadecyl-silica (Spherisorb 5 ODS) column was used with methanol/water (73/27 volume %) isocratic system as eluent. Both HPLC-fluorometry and HPLC-UV detection methods were employed. The present technique is compared with other instrumental methods developed earlier and its utility in chemotaxonomic and toxicologic studies is discussed.

In medicolegal cases and mass disasters, the identification of individuals is critical. This paper summarizes an effective method of identification from the sutural patterns found on the ectocranial surface of skulls.

Blood samples from 240 unrelated healthy Tamil-speaking South Indian Hindus residing in Madras (capital city of Tamil Nadu, India) were screened for HLA-A and -B antigen profiles. Antigen, gene and haplotype frequencies were calculated and compared with the literature. Tamil Hindus lack A31, A32, Aw33, B16, B21 and Bw41. However, except for minor differences (low occurrence of Aw19 antigen), the South Indians show similarity to North Indian and other Indian groups. The data confirm once more that the haplotype A1-B17 is characteristic of Indians.

Video technology for skull face superimposition for identification purposes has been in use for about a decade. An electronic skull identification device (ESID) has been fabricated in which positioning of skull is achieved by adopting the method of Sekharan. First the photograph is enlarged to life size by taking into consideration the life size measurements of the face. From the life size photograph, flexion, extension, rotation and lateral flexion factors relating to the posture of the face as seen in the photograph are worked out. The skull is then positioned in a specially fabricated skull stand which is capable of permitting the skull all movements of the head. Another salient feature in this technique is that care is taken to bring exactly to 1:1 size the images of the skull and face photograph on the video monitor before superimposition and comparison are attempted.

Spectrofluorometric quantitation of a lignan lactone, diphyllin, and its glycosides cleistanthin A and cleistanthin B, the active principles of the poisonous plant Cleistanthus collinus, is reported for the first time. Thin layer chromatographic resolution of the components precedes the fluorometric measurements. The method is highly reproducible and sensitive to 0.1 microgram/mL for diphyllin and to 1 microgram/mL for cleistanthins A and B in ethanol. The technique is employed for the assay of several biospecimens of forensic and clinical importance.

The examination of 320 skulls collected at random revealed that the ectocranial suture patterns in them are highly individualistic and that no two skulls can ever have an identical pattern. The possibility of these suture patterns being recorded incidentally in routine diagnostic skull radiographs was verified by examining the skull skiagrams preserved in radiology departments. A positive method of identification of the skull is suggested by the comparison of radiographic with visible skull suture pattern.

The relative efficiency of four enzymic-digestion procedures in the release of eight basic drugs from tissue has been studied. Enzymes employed include: subtilisin Carlsberg, trypsin, papain, and neutrase. The results obtained on recovery show that papain digestion gives highest recovery for most of the drugs studied. Papain is suggested as the enzyme of choice. The application of neutrase, a neutral proteinase from B. subtilis, is reported for the first time.

Four enzymic digestion methods have been evaluated for their efficiency in releasing certain alkaloids and glycosides from spiked liver tissue. Enzymic digestion gives better recoveries of all the plant poisons studied than those obtained by conventional methods. A flow diagram for the enzymic methods of drug isolation and quantitation by HPLC is presented. Enzymic digestion for the release of glycosides is reported for the first time. It is concluded that papain digestion is the most suitable method for the analysis of broad spectrum of compounds of forensic and clinical importance.

Blood samples from 103 Kotas and 58 Badagas residing in the Nilgiri Hills, South India, were examined for HLA-A and -B antigen profiles. The Kota group was characterized by fairly high frequencies of A2 and B7 antigens as well as the haplotype A2-B7. The frequencies of Aw19, A28, and Bw22 were found to be higher in Badagas than in Kotas. The results are compared with the literature available on other Indian populations.

Identification of the dead from the skull is of primary importance in criminal cases. It is often necessary to undertake examinations in the Forensic Science Laboratories to determine whether a skull could have belonged to a particular person whose photograph is available. It was Professor Brashl who in 1935 first suggested that the photographs of the missing person and the skull could be superimposed as an identification tedhnique. Since then various scientists have utilized this technique in many criminal cases. Mr. G. Webster2 gives a detailed description of the superimposition technique adopted in the Plumbago Pit case. Recently in the Corn field crime case of Peru, Dr. Basauri8 also used superimposed photographs, besides forensic odontology, for identification purposes. In all these cases the technique generally adopted has been described as follows: From the original photograph a negative retake is made. The original photograph may be a bust, a full length photo of the individual or a group photograph. In any case only the face is reproduced on the negative of definite format. The skull is then placed on a tripod, and its position is adjusted exactly to that of the face in the photograph. It is then focused on the ground glass at the same format. The reproduced negative is placed on the ground glass and the image of the skull is adjusted to super impose on the negative and then photographed. The adjustment is made by drawing an outline of the face or by marking the prominent anatomical points of the face on the ground glass. Finally the two negatives are superimposed to give a positive print. Then the photograph is enlarged and points that are coinciding are noted and opinion given.