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NEW DELHI: The prime focus of the Central Bureau of Investigation team now probing the Nithari killings in Noida should be to establish the identities of the deceased in order to link the perpetrators to the gruesome crime, says Dr. P. Chandra Sekharan, Director of the Centre for Forensic Sciences National Law University in Jodhpur.

A Padma Bhushan recipient, Dr. Sekharan visited the crime scene on Tuesday to share his experience with the investigating team. Though appreciative of the work being done by the CBI, he said the agency should carry out full-scale, credible and thorough investigations into each and every aspect of the case as per set international standards. "In such cases, a team comprising officials from the judiciary, police, forensic scientists, forensic pathologists, forensic ondontologists, forensic anthropologists and forensic osteologists should be set up," he said.

Stating that the CBI should lay stress on establishing the "corpus delecti" (identification of the deceased), Dr. Sekharan said: "Even if they succeed in establishing the identity of only one victim, it would be enough to connect the culprits to the crime." For identification, he said the agency should at first keep a record of each and every piece of evidence collected from the scene of crime and their nature, through proper classification. "They should have a computer with them to store the data on-the-spot." The CBI should gather details of the missing persons from their families, including their medical history and inputs on any abnormality in them for the purpose of identification.

"The CBI should at first go in for DNA tests, which is the best way to determine the identities of the deceased. In cases where it is not possible, they can opt for skull-face superimposition technique wherein the photograph of the missing person is superimposed with the image of the recovered skull for matching. If the families of the missing persons have any of their ante-mortem X-ray, it can also be of help in the identification as the pattern of skull sutures differs from person to person and it is a foolproof method. Identification can also be done through odontology in case dental X-ray records are made available," said Dr. Sekharan. Identification of the deceased was also important because the compensation offered by the Government must reach the right hands. Terming narco-analysis and brain mapping tests as nothing but a hoax,

Dr. Sekharan, who was the main forensic scientist in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, said the techniques were of no consequence when it came to investigations. It was a documented fact that psychopaths, like in the Nithari case, would lie even under the influence of the drugs used in the test and could misguide the investigators.

"The narco-analysis technique has been abandoned in many countries. The brain-mapping technique is still in the research stage," he said. "Polygraph test results could also be manipulated by the examiner."

"I would appeal to the CBI not to go for tests like narco-analysis and brain-mapping as by doing so it would spoil its own image and lose investigating skills," said Dr. Sekharan.

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