To appear in July 1997 Issue

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-50

OPUS 50

                                            ‑Dr. Anil Aggrawal

This is my 50th article in the popular series "Science in Crime Detection", and since this is a "Golden Jubilee" article, I want to make it somewhat special. I have preferred to call this article simply "OPUS 50". Opus is actually a Latin word meaning "a work of art or literature". This word still survives in the expression magnum opus, which means "a work of great artistic merit". Sometimes a numeral is used after the term opus to refer to the number of the work by that particular author or composer. Thus the English romantic composer Sir Edward Elgar's (1857-1934), "Sevillana Opus 7" is one of his early compositions, while his "Cello Concerto Opus 85" is a late composition- his 85th to be exact.

The term Opus has been used in interesting ways by writers. The great American science writer Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) named his 100th book simply Opus 100, his 200th book, Opus 200 and his 300th book, Opus 300. Not only this, while his usual books generally dealt with a specific science subject, his "Opus" books were simply a summarization of his earlier works. His Opus 100 was simply a summary of his first 99 books, his Opus 200, a summarization of his second hundred books and so on. This is what I intend to do with this article. After Isaac Asimov, of whom I am a great fan, I have called this article Opus 50 (since it is my 50th piece) and it is going to be a summary of all my previous articles. It will also take the readers down the memory lane.

During the years this series has appeared, all of you have given it unprecedented love and affection. I have received innumerable letters from fans praising the column. Some have written letters to give valuable suggestions and other have written to ask for advice on specific problems they were facing. I would take this opportunity to go down the memory lane and revive some of the fond memories associated with this fantastic crime magazine and this column. This will hopefully be interesting to readers who joined our exclusive "Detective Club" later.

Way back in 1991, I was working on my first crime book (which later became popular as "1000 Crime Quiz") with Rupa and Co. In that company I came across an energetic young proof reader Jitendra Kumar Singh. Although he was a "mere" proof reader, he impressed me with his rare intelligence, and I made it a point to meet him whenever I visited that company. He taught me several nuances of proof reading too, in which incidentally I had become interested. Later he left that company. One fine day in the beginning of 1993, he visited me in my college, and enquired if I would be interested in writing a science column in a crime magazine which was going to be started soon. He said that he himself would be associated with that magazine in a significant way. The idea of writing a science column in a crime magazine had always fascinated me, as in that way I could take science to the common reader, especially science as used for crime detection. I gave my affirmation and he took me to the "Crime & Detective" office. The office at that time was situated somewhere in Daryaganj. We had to pass through several narrow lanes and bylanes to reach a narrow, cramped third floor office, and I must confess that at the first sight, I did not like the office at all (I must hasten to add that the office is now situated in a lush spacious office building in Mukherjee Nagar). But the moment I met the Editor Mr Satish Verma and talked to him, I knew that he meant business. To me, he seemed a man with a vision, with a mission so to say. He wanted to spread consciousness among the general public regarding matters of crime, crime detection, crime prevention, its legal aspects and so on. He showed me the dummy cover of the magazine, which they were intending to bring out sometime next month. After interacting with him for just 10-15 minutes, I had decided that I would work with him. I gave my assent and came back.

My first column appeared in February 1993, just a few days after that meeting, and although more than 4 years have passed since then, I have been writing this column continuously without break. The first column was entitled "When did the murder take place?" which dealt with one of my real life cases in which I had to calculate the time of death of a victim. I had written the piece by hand (I did not have a computer then!), and had submitted it on the last day, just when the magazine was about to be finalized in the press. The piece appeared on a single page- the last page (no 90) of the magazine in very small typeface- obviously a hurried effort. Mr Satish Verma, the energetic editor of the magazine came to me some days later with the magazine and handed me the magazine. He explained that there was no space left in the magazine, but since he wanted to include this piece in the inaugural issue at any cost, he had somehow squeezed my article in. This was how the column started. I still remember that meeting vividly. I had expected the magazine to be quite shoddy, but it had come out extremely well. Considering that it was the first issue, it could be rated as an extremely good beginning. Later on when I visited Japan and USA and saw several leading crime magazines there, I realized what a good work Mr. Satish Verma and his team had been doing. The magazines were in no way better than the one we were bringing out already. Before leaving for USA, I had promised Mr. Verma to bring some copies of crime magazines from there so that we could improve upon our own magazine's quality, but seeing those magazines, I at once realized, I did not need to buy any of them. We already had an equally good (or perhaps better) magazine.

I had expected a good response for this first article, but the response was much more than expected; it was simply overwhelming. I was unable to handle all the mail that was coming in. I personally replied to all letters which were accompanied by self-addressed stamped envelops, and have since been doing so with all such letters. Many letters are from youngsters who want to become detectives or take up a course in either forensic science or forensic medicine. There was such a massive spate of letters related to this request that I was forced to run a special box on "Career in Forensic Medicine" accompanying my 26th article entitled "Forgery of Cheques" which appeared in the July 1995 issue of the magazine.

I bought a computer on 29 May 1994- a 386 Dx2; quite an impressive configuration in those times, and the first computer-prepared article was the 16th in the series entitled "Murder by electric shock" which appeared in August 1994 issue of the magazine. Since then all my pieces are prepared on computer. Of course, now I possess a 486 DX-2 machine, and hope to go for a Pentium pretty soon!

I rode professional ladders as I continued writing the articles. When I first wrote the article in Feb 93, I was an associate professor of forensic medicine, and the byline carried that designation. On 1st June 1993, I became a full-fledged professor and the article appearing in July 1993 issue carried the byline as Professor for the first time!

Very few people know that once in a while, besides writing my usual forensic column "Science in Crime Detection", I wrote other articles too. These too dealt with crime but in different ways, and that's why I have not counted them in my regular list of "Science in Crime Detection" articles. One of the most interesting such articles was written in September 1993 issue. It was called "A unique museum of crime and horror". It appeared with several gory pictures of the "London Dungeon", a unique museum of crime which I visited in London in 1990. I am told that this issue has become a collectors' issue now, and is being sold at a premium.

Then I have done other series' too, which are not too well-known. Since I am taking a trip down the memory lane, I thought I should mention a little about them too. From September 1993, I started a new column "Be the Detective", under the pseudonym "Marygold Gupta" in which readers would be asked a crime quiz. This was based on one of my real cases. We ran this column for several months, and although I thought this column was evoking good response, Mr Verma thought otherwise, and the column came to an end next year. The last column under this series (the 7th in the series) appeared in May 1994 issue. This was entitled "Who killed the Old Lady?".

From January 1994, I started yet another series "Great cases of Interpol" under the pseudonym "Tarun Aggrawal". The first story appeared on pages 86-89, and although it too evoked good response, it never really took off, and it also came to a premature close.

The only other series I did for Crime & Detective was the one called "Famous Crime Stories". It ran for a total of 9 stories from April 93 issue ("The Bloody Evidence") till March 1994 ("The case of the Black Dahlia"). After this issue, this series stopped too.

I have often toyed with the idea of doing a series on real life cases of great escapes. There are many real life stories of people who escaped from enemy camps, war prisons, and so on by making tunnels, swimming long oceans precariously on makeshift rafts etc. Cases such as these titillate popular imagination and fill us with wonder and awe. One of the most famous of such cases is of that of Henrie Charrière (commonly referred to as Papillon which is French for butterfly!), who escaped tens of prisons during his lifetime. He later wrote a bestseller "Papillon" based on his life. Many readers however have not had the good fortune of having read it, and I have often wondered how they would like to read such stories in a capsule like form. The readers may let me know. The other idea that I have often toyed with is do a series on the life and great cases of real life detectives from all over the world.

Well coming back to the existing series; discerning readers would note that the series now appears with a unique emblem on the top. On the left appears a microscope and on the right side appears a description of the series. The very first article however appeared only with the blurb, which I had written hurriedly on Mr Verma's request. It is strange that this hurriedly written blurb proved to be so exact and we haven't changed a word since then. From the second article onwards, however the emblem of the microscope signifying forensic science was added on the left hand side.

Once in a while the magazine could not appear for unavoidable reasons, and the readers did not pardon us for that. For instance, the May and December 1993 issues could not appear for some reasons, and I was flooded with a spate of letters as to why the magazine - and the column - did not appear. Then in 1994, we again missed two issues - June and December, and again there was a fresh spate of complaints. I almost felt like Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes who was flooded with similar complaints when for a time being he "killed" his loving detective. People became so violent that he had to "revive" Sherlock Holmes. I asked my readers to bear with us and hopefully they understood. From January 1995 however we have been consistently bringing out the magazine.

We started a feedback column from the 19th article onwards, which appeared in November 1994 issue of the magazine. This article was entitled "Deaths in police custody", and the feedback was on an earlier article entitled "Murder by electric shock" which was the 16th article appearing in August 1994 issue of the magazine. During this gap of 3 months, we collected and went through all the letters (related to that article) that poured in from all parts of the world, and then published the answers and added information in the form of a capsule in a small box which was appended to the main article itself. We continued running this rather unusual supplementary column at a time lag of 3 months for almost a year- up to October 1995- but then discontinued it for reasons of space.

During the four and a half years we have run articles on every possible aspect of crime- sex, debauchery, forgery, assault, killings, homicides, suicides, accidents and so on, and hopefully have made the public more conscious and aware towards matters of crime detection. I specifically left out poisons as I had initially intended to start a parallel column called "The poison sleuths" in which I would deal with one particular poison each time. But this remained an idea only and never materialized. I hope to start it sometime in the future. With the readers' support we want to scale new heights. Hopefully by the time I pen my 100th column, the magazine would have garnered a still greater readership.

In March 1996, I left for a tour of Japan and USA for a period of 4 months on an invitation by the World Health Organization to share my experiences with my academic colleagues in those countries. Mr Verma was a trifle worried about the column, and I could understand his uneasiness as the column had grown so popular, and stopping it wouldn't have been the right thing. I worked overtime, left all my other engagements and handed him five articles before I left for Japan on 23rd March 1996. I moved to USA from Japan, and when I returned from USA on 25th July, I was extremely pleased to see my piece in all the issues which had appeared in my absence. So in a way I kept my date with the series even in my absence.

Some readers have informed me that they are cutting my articles regularly and collecting them in a file. One reader contacted me in my college sometime back and showed me a "bound" version of all my articles. He had neatly cut, bound and even indexed my articles. I never imagined this could be done, but once I saw this, I realized what a useful collection he had made. Since he had indexed the articles too, he could immediately go back to any problem he wanted to solve for himself. In effect he had created a very interesting book which he could read anytime. Readers who want to do this can collect all the articles available and can start a similar filing system.

In fact several lawyers, judges, police officers and members of general public have written that I should compile all my articles in the form of a book so that everyone could get the benefit of all the articles, even if he "joined the club" late. This is an interesting and useful suggestion, and hopefully sometime in the future such a book would appear. Of course till I am able to do that, the readers can compile my articles for themselves.

One teenage girl wrote to me from Orissa, that youngsters in that area had made a "Science in Crime Detection" club, where they would meet regularly and discuss my columns, and the science involved in them! Undoubtedly I gathered an unprecedented fan following via this column. Each year on the New Year's Day, I get hundreds of greeting cards from fans all over the country (and some even from abroad). Some readers have written to say that the first article they read in the magazine is my column. It is nice to think that the column has become so popular.

So much so for the history of this extremely popular column. I have enjoyed sharing a piece of my mind with you and hopefully this description would give you a bird's eye view of how we have worked during these 4 and a half years to bring the best of crime detection to you.

How did I come to be a forensic pathologist? That is a question several readers have asked. Well there is no better opportunity than this one to spend some space on this, especially as I am already taking a trip down the memory lane.

Believe it or not, I came to forensic medicine as an accident. I took up the study of medicine way back in 1973 with a view to becoming a traditional doctor (I wanted to become a surgeon in those times). But when I started studying the various subjects in the medical course, I discovered that forensic medicine held a special interest for me. I devoured all books on forensic medicine that I could find. Needless to say I topped the University in that subject. That was way back in 1976.

Yet I had no particular inclination to take up forensic medicine as a career, especially as in those times, it was not seen with as much respect, as medicine or surgery were. In June 1979, I completed a 6 months stint in the specialty of ENT as a house surgeon in Safdarjang Hospital, and then joined medicine. In the department of medicine at the Safdarjang Hospital, there were three Units, which were quite unequal in the work load. Unit 1 headed by one Col Bannerjee was supposed to be the heaviest in work load, followed by unit 2 and unit 3 in that order. Every young doctor (including me) wanted to work in unit 3 (or at worst in unit 2) so that he could get enough time to study for a PG entrance examination of the Delhi University to be held the next year. By a quirk of fate I got the most heavily burdened department, and with this blew my hopes of getting time to study. However All India Institute of Medical Sciences also holds PG examinations, and I had already appeared in this entrance examination for the position of an M.D. in forensic medicine in the previous month.

The results of this examination were announced sometime in August 1979, by which time I had got thoroughly disenchanted with medicine. I hated examining patients, especially in the dead of the night, when I was having good sound sleep. I never was ecstatic examining patients even otherwise. Thankfully enough I had passed the examination in flying colors and I got the acceptance letter from the Institute. Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity. Yet my friends dissuaded me from joining this weird branch. Next day, I went to the AIIMS, merely to give my refusal, but the clerk sitting at the counter convinced me that forensic medicine indeed was a good branch, and I should not let that opportunity go. He advised me to meet Dr. Jagdish Chandra, the Head of the department of Forensic medicine, an old doyen of the field to get further advise on the matter. I met Dr. Chandra immediately and after having just a 15 minute meeting with him, I was convinced that forensic medicine was for me. I had gone to AIIMS to give my refusal but on returning back to Safdarjang hospital I tendered my resignation, and thus came an end to my not-so-happy stint in medicine.

I sometimes wonder, what would have happened if I had got Unit 3 in medicine, or if I had not met that friendly clerk in AIIMS. Perhaps then I would not have been a forensic medicine man today. I would be sitting in some clinic somewhere examining patients' tongues and pulses, but I am sure I wouldn't have been enjoying my life as much as I am today.

I completed my MD in forensic medicine in June 1982, and then joined Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) in August 1982 as a Senior Resident. I did not like the working there however, and soon after my marriage on March 16, 1983, I left that department and joined AIIMS again where Dr. Chandra was too glad to take me once again. In fact it was Dr. Chandra who advised me to join his department when I went to give my marriage invitation card to him!

On 1st June 1985, I joined MAMC once again as assistant professor. Why MAMC again, you may ask! Well, to be sure, I never wanted to join MAMC as I had begun liking the environment at the AIIMS, but my temporary term at the AIIMS was coming to an end, and I had to find a place somewhere else. AIIMS did not have a permanent position then and MAMC provided me a reasonably respectable post, which was supposed to be permanent. I joined the post and after 3 years, on 1st June 1988, became an Associate Professor. On 26th August 1989, I was granted the prestigious British Council Fellowship, under which I went to one of the best departments of forensic medicine in the world- the one at the Edinburgh Medical School, Scotland. There I met Professor Anthony Busuttil, who completely changed my views of forensic medicine, and for the first time in my life, I came to realize what forensic medicine was really all about. It was at this department that the true foundations of forensic medicine were laid down in my mind and soul. I still like to call Prof Busuttil as my true mentor. Anyone who needs to be a specialist in forensic medicine must spend a minimum of one year - preferably three years- with him. I spent one fruitful year at that department and then returned on September 20 next year, after having a whirlwind tour of Europe which took me as far and wide as France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany, Belgium and the erstwhile USSR.

After 5 years I got another prestigious scholarship, this one by the World Health Organization (WHO), and this time I went to Japan and USA, where I met several more doyens in the field of forensic medicine. I left for Japan on 23rd March 1996, made a round-the-world trip and came back via USA and UK on 25th July the same year. In Japan some of the best forensic specialists I met were Dr. Katsuji Nishi of the Shiga University, Dr. Akahiro Takatsu of the Tokyo University, Dr. Choei Wakasugi of the Osaka University and Dr. Tsuneo Suzuki of the Yamagata University. In the USA I met and worked with Dr. Charles J Stahl of the United States Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Dr. Heeresh Mirchandani, the Medical Examiner at Philadelphia and Dr John Smialek, the Medical Examiner at Baltimore. Needless to say my outlook and work ethic were changed a lot after meeting these remarkable people.

So much so about how I came to the specialty of forensic medicine, and some of my fondest experiences in this specialty. Coming back to my writings now. I said earlier that during the last 4 years or so, I have written on virtually every aspect of crime. For classification purposes I have classified the articles in 16 neat categories. The categories are mentioned below along with the number of articles written against each

Category Number of articles written

1.accidental deaths 1

2.asphyxia 3

3.death by exotic means 5

4.forensic procedures 1

5.forensic ballistics 2

6.forensic science 5

7.forensic osteology 1

8.forensic odontostomatology 1

9.identification 4

10.injuries 5

11.law and medicine 1

12.narcotic drugs 4

13.reconstruction of crime by

   special means 5

14.sex 4

15.special weapons 2

16.thanatology 5

Total 49

Explanations of a few terms would be in order as I have used certain technical terms here. The word asphyxia refers to all those deaths in which the death occurs due to stoppage of respiration. Forensic ballistics refers to the detection of crimes by studying guns, their ammunitions and the like. Forensic osteology refers to the detection of crime by studying bones, while forensic odontostomatology refers to the detection of crime by studying the teeth and other surrounding mouth structures such as lips, gums and saliva. Study of bite marks is also included in this term. The term thanatology comes from the Greek God of death Thanatos, and refers to the study of death in all its aspects. More specifically it deals with the calculation of the time of death.

For those readers who would like to go in the detail regarding the earlier articles, the following table is intended to give a bird's eye view of all my earlier articles.

So that's the summary of all my earlier articles. Those of you who have missed out on earlier articles may write to the editor of the magazine for back numbers. I am afraid some of them may not be available, but nevertheless you may try.

New readers may be wondering what appeared in earlier articles. I would give the extracts from some of my earlier articles to give you a sampling of what was written earlier. Here are the very first lines from my very first article appearing in February 1993 issue...

Many a time I have been called by the police to places where dead bodies are lying and I am asked to tell them when a particular person was done to death. This is a very important question for the police to know. Imagine a person found dead in a hotel room at 10.00 pm by a waiter. Visitors' register and statements of various hotel employees reveal that four people met that man on that day at 10 am, 1 pm, 3 pm, and 7 pm respectively. Obviously, the murder was committed by one of them. Many might imagine the last visitor to be the murderer, because, had an earlier visitor murdered the man, the next visitor would have informed the police. But this is not necessarily so. A man might knock at the door, get no answer and return. Also, a visitor with a criminal record may have been too afraid to inform about the murder, even if he had discovered the dead body. Thus, it becomes very important to tell exactly when the person died....

I then went on to describe how I solved such a murder case in which four visitors came at different times and one of them had killed the victim.

Readers may want to have a sampling of my articles from each category. Reading these extracts can give interesting insights into various methods of crime detection, even by those readers who missed out these issues. Moreover these passages are complete in themselves so they make excellent candidates for independent reading. Okay so let us now get cracking. This is what I wrote in my 17th article on "Deaths due to accidents"....

Category 1: Accidental Deaths

Article 17: Death due to accidents September 1994

When a person is struck by a car, he generally receives injuries on his legs, because these are the lowermost part of one's body and are on the level of car's bumper. In fact in most cases of accidents by car, the pedestrian receives fractures of the legs, which go by the name `Bumper fractures'. By measuring the height of these fractures from the heels, one can actually measure the height of the bumper of the car. Sometimes the car bumper may only cause abrasions and tears. Their position on the legs may tell the position of the victim while the accidents occurred. For instance if these abrasions and tears are on the front of legs, it is quite obvious that he was facing the vehicle. If these injuries are on the back of the legs, it denotes that the victim might be hit unawares while he was facing away from the vehicle.

My second category is on asphyxia. Here is what I wrote in my 27th article on hanging appearing in August 95 issue.

Category 2: Asphyxial Deaths

Article 27: Deaths from hanging August 1995

A peculiar and somewhat misunderstood form of hanging is Judicial hanging. This is the form of hanging employed by the jail officials to impart the Capital sentence to a criminal. It is generally thought that the mechanism of judicial hanging is the same as seen in suicidal hanging. This is not so. In suicidal hanging, as we have seen, the death is either due to stoppage of heart or due to lack of oxygen. Neither of these two mechanisms operates in the case of Judicial hanging. In Judicial hanging, the noose is wound round the neck in such a way, that the knot is either at the angle of the jaw or beneath the chin. Then the victim is made to fall through a trap door. The drop is usually about 8 to 10 feet, but this may be less or more depending on the weight of the victim. A lesser weight would call for a longer drop and vice-versa. The long drop and the peculiar position of the noose, breaks the joints of the neck and in the process the spinal cord in the region of the neck is crushed. Thus the victim meets an instantaneous death.

In cases of hanging a very peculiar thing that is seen is the ligature mark. This is a deep impression, made by the ligature material (such as the rope or the loin cloth with which the victim hangs himself) and is seen on the neck. This mark tells many important things to the forensic pathologist. Among other things, this mark tells the position of the victim at the time of fixing the noose. Another important feature of the ligature mark of hanging is that it is not found completely around the neck. There is a little gap in the ligature mark at the suspension point. This is in sharp contrast with the ligature mark of strangulation which is seen all round the neck. This is one of the several ways in which we can make out whether the death was due to hanging or strangulation.

The articles on "Deaths by exotic means" evoked good response from the readers. One of the most exciting of these articles was "Murder by electric shock". Here is what I wrote in this article....

Category 3: Death by exotic means

Article 16: Murder by electric shock August 1994

A young woman was found dead in her bath, slumped forwards in a kneeling position with one breast resting against a chrome tap. The left arm was trailing over the edge of the bath, in which was the usual level of water plus an electric fan heater immersed near the feet. The heater was connected by a long cable to a 240 volt socket in an adjacent bedroom. To all intents and purposes it appeared that the woman, while taking her bath had accidentally slipped in the bath and drowned. This is not a very unusual mode of death. Several people have accidentally died in this way. As regards the heater in the water, it was assumed that when the woman must be struggling to find her way out, her legs may have got entangled in the cable wire somehow and she must have accidentally dragged the heater in the bath. Since Britain is a cold country many people keep heaters in their bathroom while taking bath, so the presence of a heater in the bathroom did not arouse much suspicion. The post mortem examination seemed merely a routine formality.

However while we were conducting the post mortem examination I noted two curious marks on the body..... The first was on the left breast and the other was over the inside of her left arm near the axilla. These were the marks produced by electricity..... it was a case of homicide rather than that of accident! Subsequent investigations revealed that it was indeed a case of homicide and the husband was involved in that ghastly murder. So just two insignificant looking marks took the perpetrator of crime to the gallows. To understand about these marks let us understand about some of the basics of electricity first.

I then went on to describe some basics of electricity which helped me prove that the marks were indeed produced by electricity. I had encountered this case in Great Britain during my tenure there in 1989-90, hence the reference to Britain in the above piece.

Category 4: Forensic procedures

Article 12: Examining the scene of Crime March 1994

Many times when a murder is reported in an outfield, the police officers prefer to take us to the scene where the dead body is lying. The idea is to give first hand information to the police regarding the murder. There are many vital pieces of evidence which can get lost once the body is moved.

Consider the case of a man who has been shot down by a bullet and is lying on the field. Only a forensic pathologist can say by examining the dead body, as to which is the entrance wound and which one the exit wound. To a lay person, or a police officer, both  the wounds of entrance and exit would appear the same. If forensic pathologist examines these wounds, he can reconstruct the line of fire, by joining these two points and say which direction the bullet came from. Once the body is moved, it would become impossible to reconstruct this 'line of fire' which can prove vital in later police investigations.

I then went on to describe how we can reconstruct this line of fire by examining the body at the scene of crime itself.

Category 5 is on forensic ballistics. To put it in plain and simple terms it is on guns. I haven't written much on it, (just two articles) although there is a great potential in this category. I hope to write more articles in this category in my subsequent pieces. Here is a sampling from my 43rd article in the series.

Category 5: Forensic ballistics (Guns and Firearms)

Article 43: Clever way to identify the killer gun Dec 96

Hand guns are basically of two types- revolvers and pistols. Revolvers generally have a rotating chamber at the back. This chamber has 5-7 empty places (generally 6) in which cartridges can be placed. A cartridge, as we all know, is an assembly of bullet and gunpowder, encased in a metallic case. When the trigger is pulled, the firing pin hammers the base of the cartridge. This ignites the gunpowder within the cartridge, releasing a large amount of gas. The gas pushes the bullet forward violently, which shoots out of the barrel of the gun and does all the damage. The empty cartridge case is left behind. Its two most important occupants, the bullet and the gunpowder are no more present- the gun powder has burnt, and the bullet has left the barrel. The problem is to take the empty cartridge case out of the gun, so that next cartridge case may be loaded, and next bullet fired. In a revolver, this problem is taken care of by revolving the rear chamber a little bit, so that the next bullet comes in line. In a similar fashion all 6 bullets can be fired and then the operator can take out the empty cartridge case from each of the chambers later on.

In a pistol, there is a mechanism by which each cartridge is ejected the moment it releases its bullet. The spent cartridge falls at the scene of crime itself. In a revolver this does not happen, as we have already seen. The cartridges remain in the chambers, and they are taken out later in a more relaxed atmosphere.

The important fact that emerges out from this is worth noting. If someone uses a revolver, no empty cartridge cases would be found at the scene of crime; if on the other hand a pistol is used, empty cartridge cases would be found at the scene of crime.

I then went on to describe how by finding the empty cartridge on the ground we can tell the make of the pistol. This article is a very interesting one, and generated a tremendous response among readers who wanted to know about guns.

Many people take forensic medicine to be equivalent to forensic science, and think I am a forensic scientist. Well, I am not. I am mainly a forensic pathologist, and deal with cases in which human body figures in some way. Forensic science is a much broader discipline. It relates to cases in which crime scientists take the help of any branch of science (and not just medicine) to solve crime. Physics, chemistry, biology, botany... literally any branch of science can help in the detection of crime. Forensic pathologists like me use just pathology (study of changes in organs in trauma and disease) for the detection of crime. Forensic medicine is a wider branch than forensic pathology but narrower than forensic science. A forensic medicine man would use other branches of medicine too for the detection of crime. For instance he would use X-rays to find out the exact age of a person, if he was cheating his age for some reason (for instance if he were a person of only 17 years of age and had come to cast his vote). Although I am basically a forensic pathologist, I do take up many cases of forensic medicine and some of forensic science too. Here is what I did for my 26 article on forgery of cheques.

Category 6: Forensic Science

Article 26: Forgery of cheques July 1995

Documents are often made fraudulent by the erasure of important information on a document and the subsequent addition of new data or information. The documents which are frequently changed in this manner (for some or the other gain) are share deeds, inheritance wills, contracts, university degrees, letters offering jobs, passports, birth and marriage certificates, ration cards and of course cheques. It is not infrequent for a terrorist to steal a valid passport, erase the important personal information on it, add one's own particulars in it, and then use that forged passport to run away to other countries. Similarly wills may be changed to dupe someone of his rightful share.

Erasures can be made in one of three ways. One way is the so-called chemical erasure. In this type of erasure, some chemical such as oxalic acid is used to remove the writing from the document. In fact, one can easily get "ink-removers" from the market, which contain some kind of chemical or bleaching agent to remove the stains. The second way is abrasive erasure. Erasure by common household rubber comes under this class. You must have noticed that ink stains can not be removed by rubber. Thus commonly ink stains are removed by chemical erasure. But even ink stains may be removed by abrasive method. For this one must buy a special rubber, which has sand grains in it. This rubber is commonly kept by the typists to remove typewritten matter. The sand grains rub the paper fibers very harshly and remove them from the paper, the ink stains coming out along with them. Even if you do not have this kind of rubber with you, you could still remove an ink stain by taking a blade, scalpel or a sharp knife and scratching the paper with the sharp tip. This is also a form of abrasive erasure. Abrasion types of erasures are the easiest to detect because abrasive method disturbs the fibers of the paper. As you must be knowing, paper is made from wood pulp, and is thus composed of fibers. These fibers may not be visible on naked eye examination, but they are very clearly seen on microscopic examination. If some written matter has been erased from the surface of the paper by abrasive means, the delicate arrangement of the fibers will be disturbed. This disturbed arrangement could very easily be seen through the microscope. In addition, the coating of the paper will also be disturbed.

The third type of erasure are the lift off ribbon erasures. These are special kinds of erasures. This method is applied in modern electronic typewriters. This type can remove any type of written material from the paper. Basically it consists of applying a strip of adhesive tape over the written line, and then  jerking the strip off the surface of the paper. The fibers of the paper along with anything written over them will adhere to the adhesive tape, and come off along with it. This method can be easily demonstrated at home. Take any written material, which you can not remove by any means. An old book or magazine will be ideal. It is almost impossible to erase the printed word by either chemical or abrasive means. Now take the normal adhesive tape, stick a small strip over a written line and then take it off the surface of the paper with a little jerk. You will find that the written line will be erased instantaneously. This type of erasures can usually be detected with the aid of oblique lighting to see the indentations.

The most difficult erasure to detect is the carefully conducted chemical erasure of writing ink....

I then went on to describe the type of erasure that had been done on the cheque and how cleverly I detected it.

I wrote only one article in the next category- forensic osteology. There is again great potential for writing more articles in this interesting branch and I hope to write more articles in my subsequent pieces. Here is what I wrote in my 11th article.

Category 7: Forensic Osteology

Article 11: What do the bones tell us? February 1994

How do we find out sex of the victim from the bones? Many times I have been asked this question by the police officers and public. In this case, I am going to provide you with my well kept secrets.

Many sexual differences are found in the skull. Look at fig.1, carefully, which shows two skulls‑ one of a male and the other a female one. The upper one is male skull, while the lower one is a female. there are several ways in which we can say that a given skull is male or a female. One is to look at the bone just be­neath the eyebrows. This is technically known as SUPRA ORBITAL RIDGE. It is much more prominent in a male skull than in a female skull (shown in the figure by arrows). Further when you see the angulation between the forehead and the nose, you find that in a male skull, this angulation is very prominent. The bone behind the ear is known as MASTOID PROCESS. This is larger, round and blunt in a male skull and smaller, smoother and pointed in a female skull. This point is also shown in the figure by arrows. There are several other differences in the skulls, but these three are very prominent in the given diagram and I generally infer the sex from these 3 points.

Of course we can not reproduce the diagram here for lack of space. But the readers should get some idea of the powers of forensic osteology anyway.

Forensic odontostomatology is also a very interesting branch of crime detection. Here is what I wrote in my 5th article.

Category 8: Forensic Odontostomatology

Article 5: What do the bite marks tell us? July 1993

We can identify the criminal from his bite marks from the fact that each individual has teeth of different size and shape. One must have noticed that some people have short teeth, some have wide spaced teeth, some have buck teeth, some have crooked teeth and so on.

Many times the differences in size and shapes of teeth are very obvious to even a layman. But in many other cases, a layman is apt to think that there is not much difference in the teeth of any two individuals. However, if a scientist closely examines the teeth of such individuals he can easily spot many differences.

It has been seen that the structure of the teeth of an individual is as unique as his fingerprints. Since the teeth of all individuals are unique, the bite marks produced by them are also different. It has been estimated that the odds against two persons with full set of 32 teeth producing identical bite marks are 2.5 billion to 1. This means that in India, with a population of 0.8 billion, no two persons will have identical bite marks and in the whole world with a population of about 6 billion, only 2 or 3 people will have identical bite marks. This is a very reasonable conclusion and courts will not hesitate to prosecute a criminal on the evidence of bite marks.

Category 9 deals with identification, a very vital part of our work. Here is what I wrote in my 10th article on identification by fingernails.

Category 9: Identification

Article 10: What do the fingernails tell us? January 1994

...When we examined Talwar's hands all his nails had been recently clipped. Chauhan (the investigating police inspector) insisted that Talwar had become aware of his broken nails and to hide this fact he had clipped all his nails. Anyway, I managed to take a small sliver of nail from each of Talwar's fingers. In 2 hours, I was able to tell Chauhan with cent per cent certainty that Talwar was not the culprit.

How did I do this feat? Well! before I go ahead, look at your nails very carefully. You will find long striations over them, some of them are thick and some are thin. These striations are there in a fixed pattern in each individual. Every individual could be recognized positively by his unique pattern of nail striations. I tried to match the striations of the broken nails, I had found on the floor with the striations of nail silvers, I had clipped from Talwar's hands. I tried hard to match them but couldn't match them at all.

This was an extremely interesting case which I could solve by noting the peculiar striations on fingernails. I have tried to give the gist of the article in the above extract. Interested readers can acquire the original back issue from the editor and go through the entire case.

Examination of injuries form an interesting part of our work. Here is what I wrote in my 14th article.

Category 10: Injuries

Article 14: Contusions-The vital evidence May 1994

Finally I turned over the body and looked for injuries more closely. There were several contusions on the back. these are also known as bruises. In common parlance, in Hindi, we know these as "Neel". These are commonly caused by blunt force application.

I had looked at these contusions before starting the post‑mortem, but at that time I thought that they were produced by fall from stairs. Contusions can indeed be produced by a fall from the stairs. However, when I looked at them closely, I found them to have some pattern. These contusions are known as patterned contu­sions and are quite helpful in the forensic work. They tell us the shape of the object which was used to hit the deceased. If the hitting object was a lathi or an iron rod, the contusions would be linear in shape. If a hockey stick was used to beat the deceased, the contusions would take the shape of hockey stick and so on.

Only 1 article was written in the category law and medicine. This was it.

Category 11: Law and Medicine

Article 47: Crime scientists categorize injuries to assist judiciary April 1997

In 1991, the International Committee of the Red Cross, has come up with a useful wound classification which helps the physicians in assessing the severity of firearm wounds. This classification can also be profitably used by pathologists in describing the injuries. The classification takes into account six features: entry wound (E), exit wound (X), cavity (C), fracture (F), involvement of vital structure (V), and presence of metallic body in the wound (M). Although this classification system has primarily been devised for clinicians for helping them to assess the severity of the firearm wounds, it is the author's belief that this scoring system can also be used by pathologists in classifying injuries. In fact I am using this system in my autopsy cases now and the courts are too willing to accept this classification system. Well, you might ask what is the use of this scoring system in an article on crime detection. The answer is that the scoring system helps in not only classifying the injuries in a systematic way, but by mathematically expressing the severity of the wounds, one can impress the court with the figures. Numerical figures can easily be compared and assessed even by a layman. If I told you that two people received injuries with bullet wounds- one had two bullet wounds on the right arm and the other had one wound on the neck, you may not be able to assess which one was more dangerous. But if I told you that one wound was of Grade 2 severity and the other was of Grade 3 severity you would have no problem in assessing that the Grade 3 wound was more dangerous. See the point! This is the way the author believes the courts can be impressed.  Once the courts are able to comprehend the severity of the injuries, they can give out punishments accordingly. Well, I have simply started this procedure. It is one of the latest things that I have started, and in this piece I would mainly dwell on how this classification works in classifying injuries.

And then I went on to describe how this system works. This piece evoked terrific response not only from general public but even from the specialists.

On May 2, 1995 my book "Narcotic Drugs" was published by the National Book Trust. It contained many of my interesting cases related to narcotic drugs. In general it contained interesting information related to narcotic drugs such as cocaine, opium, LSD and so on. The book turned out to be extremely popular among general public, and the Trust had it translated in Hindi on popular demand. The Hindi translation known as "Maadak Aushadiyan" appeared on July 25 1996. Anyway, with the publication of my book on narcotic drugs, I became all the more interested in cases of narcotic deaths and began taking active interest in them. Naturally I wanted to tell the general public about these cases. This resulted in a series of articles on narcotic deaths beginning March 96. Even the last article in the current series - the one which appeared just last month- deals with a case of narcotic death. Well this is what I had to say in my piece appearing in March 1996.

Category 12: Narcotic Drugs

Article 34: Loving venom took her life March 1996

The youth of today is in the grips of narcotic drugs. Many narcotic drugs are in use, main among them being heroin, LSD,  amphetamines, barbiturates, cocaine and several others. Heroin is  the narcotic drug of choice today, but now many users are shifting to cocaine, especially in America. Its use in India is also increasing. The use of cocaine has permeated into the powerful and socially prominent circles. It is used by the youth of rich families. Of all the drugs cocaine is considered the largest producer of illicit income in the United States today.

Cocaine is a white, crystalline powder derived from the leaves of coca plant (known botanically as Erythroxylon coca). The coca plant is native to South America, particularly the countries of Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Colombia, and must not be confused with the similar‑sounding coca plant from which chocolate is made. The scientific name of the plant is derived from the Greek word erythros meaning `red', and xylon meaning `wood'. The name is based on the flesh‑red colour of the inner layers of the bark. The wood itself is tinged with red or yellow. Although the coca plant is natural to South America, it has been successfully cultivated in Java, West Indies, Australia and India.

It's not that cocaine use has become popular in modern times only. It has been in use for a long time. Recent archaeological findings in Ecuador indicate that the use of cocaine dates back to at least 5,000 years. Small bags of coca leaves have been found in the graves of the Incas, mysterious South American people, who lived in the Cuzco Valley of the Andes mountains on the west coast of South America.  This area roughly constitutes the modern‑day Peru.

Cocaine which is used these days is usually available in adulterated form only. During its "journey" from the clandestine lab where it is prepared to the addict, it is adulterated a number of times, a practice often known as cutting. Every dealer who gets hold of the cocaine powder mixes some adulterant powder in it. The cutting or diluting agents can be any soluble powder that is not disruptive to the body such as baking soda, powdered sugar, powdered milk, starch, etc. Since pure cocaine is also a white crystalline powder, these agents can not easily be detected and serve as good dilutants. Other agents which are usually employed to cut cocaine are lactose, dextrose, Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate), quinine or powdered vitamins. A dangerous narcotic, methamphetamine, known as speed, is also sometimes used.

Cocaine use is a very expensive habit and because of the expense, cocaine habit is often referred to as the king's habit. Cocaine has traditionally been popular with pimps, prostitutes, musicians, jet‑setters and the wealthy. It can be taken by the addict in a number of ways, but the most commonly employed method is by inhalation (known as snorting or horning). In snorting cocaine, the immediate euphoric effect (known as the rush) takes place within about thirty minutes. The usual time period for euphoric effects are generally in the same range when cocaine is injected directly into a vein. When cocaine is taken by mouth, the effects begin after five minutes and the rush is not as great as when cocaine is injected or snorted. That is why oral intake of cocaine, or cocaine eating, as it is often known, is not a preferred method among the addicts.  There is a little compensation however. The euphoric effect after an oral intake lasts about fifteen to thirty minutes longer.

The rush is most intense when cocaine is injected. Snorting produces a slightly lesser effect, yet the effect is not so minor as to make injection a preferred method.

In snorting cocaine, the user brings the powdered cocaine up to one nostril, holding the other nostril closed and sniff the cocaine into the nose. The user may use any nostril but usually holds the other nostril closed for better suction. The immediate effect of snorting cocaine is a burning or freezing of the nostril area, depending on the purity of the cocaine and the substance the cocaine has been adulterated with . If it has been "cut" with procaine, there will be more of a freezing. The user may snort anywhere from one‑tenth of a gramme to half of a gramme at one time. Sometimes little particles of cocaine can get lodged in hair of the nose, and if they remain there for any length of time, they tend to irritate the membrane and cause sores and bleeding. Because of this irritation, chronic cocaine addicts usually have a perforated nasal septum.

Reconstruction of crime by special means always holds kind of special interest for the general public. Sometimes we can reconstruct the crime events in a special way as if by magic. Here is how I solved one such case. This was my 29th article in the series. This was a case in which one Mewa Lal had been killed. His skull had been shattered to pieces, and everyone including the police thought that he had been killed by a lathi. But special methods of reconstruction of crime led me to conclude that Mewa Lal had been killed by a bullet! And this conclusion helped nab the right killer. Here is a juicy piece for all of you to enjoy.

Category 13: Reconstruction of crime by special means

Article 29: Hole in the skull October 1995

The skull had been shattered to such small pieces that it was impossible to piece them together by any conceivable means. Finally I decided to "sew" the pieces together with the help of wires. I drilled holes in the broken skull pieces, passed metal wire through the holes and then stitched them together. I had to encounter a bigger surprise, when I reconstructed the skull in this manner. Staring before me was one neat round hole in the skull! Look carefully at the reconstructed skull in Fig 2. The black arrow depicts the outlines of a neat round hole. The full circumference of the hole is not visible because I couldn't fit one piece with the wire (the piece was too small for that). However I fitted that piece at the gap with my bare hands, and the neat round hole was complete in its entirety before me. I placed the skin back on the reconstructed skull, and the bullet hole gaped before me so clear, no one could have missed it. This turned the whole police story topsy turvy. It was as if I had gone back in time and was witnessing the murder with my own eyes. Mewa Lal had not been killed by Lathi at all. He had been killed by a gun! This was a startling new fact for the police, brought about only by the autopsy. This changed the police story completely. Chandran was a poor man. It was impossible for him to keep a gun. So in one stroke, Chandran was out of police's clutches. However from the external appearance of the dead body of Mewa Lal, it surely appeared that he had been battered by a Lathi. A less thorough autopsy would have failed to bring out this new fact. Now that we knew that Mewa Lal had been killed by a gun, we knew there had to be a bullet also. We had to recover the bullet also. Since the bullet was not recovered from the body, it had to be at the scene of murder. Since we already knew that Mewa Lal had been killed in his own house, we decided to search his house for the bullet. After a thorough search, we found it buried in a wooden door. The bullet had apparently pierced Mewa Lal's head and had lodged in the door opposite to where Mewa Lal was standing.

Sex has always captured the popular imagination. Forensic pathologists have to deal a lot with cases related to sexual assaults. One of my earliest articles related to a sexual assault case, in which I attempted to give detailed female genital anatomy. Here is what I had to say in that article.

Category 14: Sex

Article 4: Was she actually raped? June 1993

Sexual crimes are on the increase these days. Many times we are asked to examine girls and young women- both alive and dead- who have been sexually molested. The questions which the police wants to ask us are many. One of the questions which is invariably asked is whether the woman has been raped or not.

It might seem surprising to many here, why the police wants to ask this question. After all, if a woman is asserting that she has been raped then she must have been. Unfortunately this is not true in all cases. Many times women falsely accuse innocent men of having raped them. In such cases it becomes very important for medical personnel to thoroughly examine the victims and tell the police whether she has been raped or not.

To determine the answer to this question, the doctor relies very heavily on examination of female genitalia and it would be pertinent to have a quick review of the structures present there. Fig 1 shows the genitalia of a female who has recently had a sexual intercourse. On the top one can see the pubic hair and at the bottom is anus. In between are structures which are collectively known as vulva. Two main openings can be seen. The upper one is urethra through which urine come out. The lower one is the vaginal opening. Intercourse takes place through this opening. Menstrual blood comes out of this opening too. Both these openings are covered by two very thick fleshy lips called labium majus. Clitoris, a very sensitive, pea sized organ lies at the top, between the folds of the labium majus.

The vaginal opening is covered in the virgins by a thin delicate membrane- the hymen. It is very thin and delicate and ruptures on sexual intercourse. The first thing that we do is to look whether the hymen is intact or not. If the hymen is intact, the presumption is that the female is telling a lie and trying to implicate the person falsely. In the diagram 1, the hymen is showing a tear at 5 O' clock position. By referring to figure 2, you can know why this tear is called to be at 5 O' clock position.

Category 15 is on special weapons. I have dealt with just 2 such articles. In my 41st article, which I solved in a very clever way, I had this to say.

Category 15: Special weapons

Article 41: Way to identify the assault weapon October 96

The moment I examined the weapon, I knew I had the killer in my hand. I had preserved the skull of Vindhya Kumari, which showed deep cuts due to the weapon (figure 2 A). As one can see clearly, these cuts show a definite pattern. The cutting edge of the  khukhri also showed some pattern (the pattern of raggedness), and if I could match the two patterns, I could be sure that the khukhri found at Sawan Kumar's house had indeed been used to kill Vindhya Kumari. The ragged pattern of the khukhri had produced the peculiar pattern on Vindhya Kumari's skull, and my job now was to match the two patterns.

I cut a Lifebuoy soap with the khukhri. In the process, it left its distinctive marks of raggedness over the soap (figure 2 B). Now under the microscope, I painstakingly matched the two patterns, i.e. the one found on Vindhya Kumari's skull and that produced on the soap. To my utter satisfaction, the pattern matched perfectly. This meant only one thing; that the khukhri had indeed been used to kill Vindhya Kumari. The chances of two entirely different weapons, producing exactly the same cut marks, were so remote that the possibility of another weapon being used in the murder could virtually be ruled out.

The police now began interrogating Sawan Kumar more assiduously. Initially he resisted, but when faced with hard scientific facts, he broke down and admitted his guilt.

This brings us to the last category- that on thanatology. My very first article was an article on thanatology, and I have already given a piece of that earlier. Without further ado, I would go on and give a sampling from my 24th article.

Category 16: Thanatology

Article 24: Clues from Putrefaction August 1995

Another putrefactive change is the appearance of gases. When bacteria feed on body tissues, they release foul smelling gases. These gases collect beneath the tissues, and bloat the features of the dead person. The tongue may begin to protrude. The features may become so distorted that even close relatives find it hard to identify the dead body (reproduce fig. 2.8 on page 60 here).

After about 36 hours, flies lay eggs around the natural orifices of the body such as nose, mouth, eyes, ears, anus and vagina. These places provide a safe nidus for the young ones of insects and they choose these places quite instinctively. In the next 24 hours, maggots come out of these eggs. These maggots look very much like miniature earthworms. Each maggot is of the size of a rice grain, and is seen wriggling leisurely. Thousands of such worms may be found wriggling all over the body. This is not a very pleasant sight, and most persons will begin to retch at such a sight. Only a forensic pathologist is well trained to stand such a ghastly sight. These maggots become pupa in the next 4-5 days, and in another 4-5 days, the pupa becomes the adult fly and flies away from the dead body. Thus we can roughly calculate the time of death from the appearance of these maggots. The following table will make the things a little bit clearer.

1. If we find eggs on the body the death could have been 36 hours before.

2. If we find maggots on the body, we add 24 hours (because maggots appear 24 hours after the eggs have been laid). Thus the time since death becomes 36+24=60 hours. This is about 2 days. In actual practice, we can never be so sure, so we take the time of death in such cases to be between 2 to 3 days.

3.If we find pupa (which looks like a grain of wheat), the death should have been about 6 days back. This is because maggots appear about 2 days after death, and become pupa in another 4 days.

4. If we find only the empty pupa shells, it means that pupa became the adult fly which escaped from the shell. This means that the death must have occurred about 10 days before.

Three more changes help us determine the time since death. In about 3 days after death, the nails become loose. In 4 days teeth become loose in their sockets and in 5 days the brain matter becomes totally liquified. Normally the brain matter is much like a jelly.

In about 12 to 14 days, so much gases collect within the body, that the body cavities like abdomen burst open. This is called colliquative putrefaction.

This then is a sampling of my earlier articles (and a little bit of my biography!). It has taken a lot of time and effort to go through all of my earlier articles and select the juiciest and choicest samplings from there. I have done really hard work on it. I would consider my work well rewarded if the readers enjoy this piece as I intended it to be. Keep giving me new ideas and I would keep incorporating them in my future articles. Long live "Crime and Detective"... Long live "Science in Crime Detection".

Dr. Anil Aggrawal, M.D.

Professor of Forensic Medicine

Maulana Azad Medical College

New Delhi‑110002