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SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-37 MASTERY OF THE PAW On 31 November 1993, I dealt with one of the strangest cases of my life. A shrivelled object was brought to me from Madhya Pradesh, which looked very much like a mummified human hand (reproduce fig III-2 on page 40: Both figures are to be reproduced!). The police wanted me to tell them whatever I could, after examination of this hand. The story that the police gave me was quite bizarre. To understand the full implications of the case, I feel it necessary to tell my readers the details of the whole case. The mummified hand (let us call it the "paw" for the sake of brevity) was recovered from the farm house of a multimillionaire land owner Bhiku Ram in Madhya Pradesh. He was 36 years of age and an influential land owner. He owned many properties in Madhya Pradesh as well as in several other states of the country. The farm house from where the paw was recovered was called Dilshaad farm house by Bhiku. It was very vast and ran into several acres. It was surrounded by vast jungles of Madhya Pradesh. Bhiku was a married man, but like a typical multimillionaire he had several vices. He had several concubines who used to visit his farmhouse regularly. One of his favorites was Anita Bai. She was a good looking female, about 22 years in age, and had only a widowed mother at her home. She came into this profession mainly to support herself and her mother. Everybody in the locality knew about the relations between Bhiku and Anita Bai. They had intimate sexual relations. Lately Anita Bai was demanding some more favours from Bhiku which he was denying. She wanted a house for her own as well as more cash per month. Bhiku thought it was too much. He was giving her about Rs 3,000 per month, and in his opinion, this amount was sufficient for Anita to support two people- herself and her mother. Moreover Anita was spending on an average only about 7 nights per month with Bhiku, and he thought Rs 3,000 for 7 nights were enough. Anita on the other hand was asking for Rs 10,000 per month and a house, to which Bhiku did not agree. This led to some misunderstanding between them. The story would have perhaps dragged on like that, but meanwhile Anita became pregnant and her demands became more insistent. She threatened to take legal recourse if Bhiku did not take immediate steps to compensate her properly for her favours. This frightened Bhiku, and he contacted his best friend Suresh for advice. The police got the preceding story from Suresh. God knows what advice Suresh gave to Bhiku, but soon after both Anita and her mother disappeared from the locality quite mysteriously. When the police enquired from Suresh, he told that he had advised Bhiku to pay up immediately as desired by Anita and then break up the relations with her as her demands were getting unreasonable. He advised that if he continued having relations with her, he was likely to land up in trouble. The police however did not believe Suresh. It was widely believed by the police as well as by several residents of the locality that Anita and her mother had been done to death by the goons of Bhiku, and perhaps it was done on the advice of Suresh. However the police had no proof for this belief. Bhiku and Suresh were arrested by the police and produced in the court for alleged murder of Anita and her mother. In the court both Bhiku and Suresh kept insisting that they had nothing to do with the disappearance of Anita and her mother, but the court remanded them to police custody for a period of 15 days. It meant only one thing- that both Bhiku and Suresh would be tortured savagely to get the truth out from them. When the mummified paw was recovered from Bhiku's farmhouse, the police felt that they had clinched the issue. Bhiku and his goons must have buried the bodies of Anita and her mother somewhere in their farm. Some animal from the neighborhood must have dug up the bodies and have devoured it, and perhaps one hand remained lying in the farm on the surface unnoticed. When the paw was given to me, Bhiku and Suresh had already spent 5 days in police custody, but despite sustained interrogation, they were not coming out with any useful revelation regarding Anita's and her mother's disappearance. Either they really did not know anything about their disappearance or otherwise they were acting very tough. The police was of the latter view. When the paw was given to me, I was specifically asked to tell the police whether it could be the hand of a female and the approximate age of that female if possible. If the hand turned out to be that of a female around 22 years of age, it would be a very strong point in favour of the police theory that Bhiku and his goons had done Anita and her mother to death and had buried them somewhere in the farmhouse. The police also made a programme to dig up the farm of Bhiku in order to recover the bodies- of course after my report was received. I made a detailed examination of the paw. It looked pretty much like the hand of an adult human being. On the back of the hand I noticed some hair too. I plucked a few hair and preserved them for later investigations. Before proceeding any further I decided to take an X-ray of the paw first. The X-ray showed rather a bizarre picture (reproduce fig III-3 on page 41 here) . If you look carefully at this picture, you will find that one of the bones is broken. It is the second long bone from the right side. Technically this bone is known as the metacarpal bone. However the anatomical configuration of the bones made me somewhat suspicious. I was not quite sure of my conclusions. But to set my doubts at rest, I removed the soft tissues from the hand and extracted the bones. Then I assembled the bones together. The adjacent figure (please reproduce figure III-4 on page 42 here) shows the result of my experiment. The hand on the left is the one I assembled and the one on the right is that of a known human hand. One can see that there is a lot of difference between the anatomical configuration of the two hands. It led to only one conclusion- that the recovered paw was not of a human but of some animal! I could not say what animal it was, but one thing was sure. It was not the hand of a human. I contacted a well known zoology professor for help on this aspect. He studied the bones in detail, and informed me that it was the paw of a bear! I was taken aback by this information. But to set all doubts at rest, I did some further experimentation on my own. I decided to check the hair I had removed from the paw earlier. All hair - whether they belong to humans or to animals- are covered with some small plate like things called scales. The pattern of scales in a human hair is different from the one found in animals. When I compared the scale pattern of the hairs recovered from the paw with known human hair, there was a lot of difference (reproduce figure III-5 on page 43 here). In the adjacent figure, the hair on the top is the one I recovered from the mummified hand, and the one on the bottom is a hair I recovered from one of my lab assistants. One can see that there is an obvious difference in the scale pattern of the two hair. It was quite obvious now, that the police had recovered the paw of a bear and not of a human. What had really happened, one may ask. Well, I believe a bear must have died in the jungle in the neighborhood and some animal must have dragged it to the safety of the farmhouse for having a comfortable meal. The paw remained uneaten after the meal and it was abandoned. It got mummified with the passage of time, and it was finally recovered from the farmhouse of Bhiku. Well, if the paw was not of Anita, what had actually happened to her? Where was she? Subsequent to my findings the police began searching on other lines. A detailed investigation showed that Anita had some distant relations in Bihar. A police party was sent there to find out about her. And to the surprise of every one concerned, Anita was found there alive, hale and hearty. Disillusioned with her life as Bhiku's concubine, she had got an abortion done and moved with her mother to Bihar to start a new life! The police party found Anita and her mother safe and sound at the village in Bihar. Since she had no friends in Madhya Pradesh, she did not find any need to tell anyone she was moving- not even to Bhiku, with whom she was obviously annoyed. After coming to Bihar, she had been making a living as a household help. Had a detailed forensic examination of the paw not been made, it was quite possible that Bhiku and Suresh would have spent an inordinately long time in the custody of police. When Bhiku and Suresh were released from the police custody, they came and fell on my feet. They thought I had saved them from the agony of a long police custody. The poor fellows did not know that it was forensic science which had actually saved them! (To protect the identity of the individuals, their names, as well as the various dates of occurrence have been changed)

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-36 DEATH FOLLOWING MARIJUANA INTAKE On 12 January 1991, a very interesting case was brought to me. A 33 year old man Kanti was returning home after a party in his car when his Maruti car collided with another car. Besides Kanti there was another person in the car, a 37 year old male Ravindra. Kanti and Ravindra were friends and had gone to a friend's party. Both Kanti and Ravindra died immediately after the collision. The police arrested the driver of the other car, a person called Bhushan, for causing the death of two persons by rash and negligent driving. Bhushan swore that he was driving the car very carefully. In fact it was the other car which was swerving from left to right. It appeared to him that the driver of the other car had been drunk. But the police did not believe him as there was no smell of alcohol from either Kanti or Ravindra's mouth. If, as Bhushan was asserting, the driver of the other car Kanti was drunk, why was there no smell of alcohol from his mouth. The net effect of their conclusion was that Bhushan found himself behind the bars. It was at this stage that the case was brought to me. When I searched the bodies of the two carefully, I found a strange looking contraption in the pockets of Kanti. Some other objects were also found in Kanti's and Ravindra's pockets. All the contents that were found in their pockets are revealed in figure 1 (please reproduce fig XX-27 on page 553 here). I immediately realized what must have happened. I called the investigating officer, and told him that Bhushan had been speaking the truth. The car must really be swerving from left to right as he had suggested. The police officer looked back at me in surprise and said,"But sir, you have hardly had a look at the body, let alone do an autopsy. How could you say that Bhushan is speaking the truth?" "Well, it is my experience with marijuana deaths, my boy!", I said in smug confidence. The readers may be surprised as to what strange objects I found in their pockets which let me make such quick and confident deductions. Well, before going any further, let me tell you a little bit about marijuana . You must all be aware of the terms bhang, charas, hashish and ganja ? These substances are not different. They all come from various different parts of the same plant, called the Indian hemp (Please reproduce fig XX-26 on page 552 here). Botanically its name is Cannabis sativa . More than 400 chemicals have been isolated from the cannabis plant. But the main chemical which is responsible for its pleasurable effects is called delta‑9‑tetrahydrocannabinol or THC . THC is found mainly in the leaves and the flowering tops of the plant. The cannabis plant gives rise to several products with many of which we are quite familiar. Bhang consists of dried leaves and shoots. It is also known by the name of siddhi, patti or sabji . Among the objects recovered from Kanti and Ravindra's pockets was bhang (see upper left of fig 1) . It may be used as such or as an infusion in the form of a beverage, which produces intoxication. The infusion is prepared by rubbing some dried cannabis leaves on a stone slab along with sugar and black pepper. It is than mixed with water and strained through a muslin cloth. This infusion is commonly known as thandai and is usually drunk in our country during the Holi festival. Majun is a sort of confection prepared from bhang by treating it with sugar, flour, milk and butter. In India one can find barfis fortified with bhang . These are rather green coloured instead of the normal white. Sweetmeats like these are called majun . Yet another product which comes from the cannabis plant is ganja . This has a rusty green colour and a characteristic odour. It comes from the flowering tops of female plants, which contains a very strong concentration of THC. While bhang contains only 1 to 2 per cent of THC, ganja may contain upto 5 per cent of THC. The same ganja is known as 'marijuana' or 'marihuana' in the West (both terms are acceptable and correct). While bhang is eaten or drunk, ganja is smoked. About 1 to 2 gm of ganja is rubbed with a little water in the palm till it becomes sticky. It is then mixed with a little tobacco and is smoked in a pipe or chilam . In India sadhus, fakirs and poor laborers often smoke ganja as a form of recreation. In modern society, ganja is being smoked at parties too, especially those arranged and attended by the youth. As my investigations later revealed, both Kanti and Ravindra were coming back from such a party. They both had in fact been smoking marijuana. Westerners smoke ganja (or marijuana as they know it) in cigarettes known as 'reefers' or 'joints'. A thin, special quality paper is taken and about 500 mg marijuana kept in it. It is then rolled in the form of a cigarette. The ends are twisted to avoid any fall out. Sometimes two papers may be used to strengthen the 'reefer'. Marijuana can also be eaten just like bhang , or brewed like tea, but taking it by mouth reduces its effect. While ingestion may take up to an hour to feel the effect, smoking may have an instantaneous effect. Marijuana is sometimes baked in biscuits too (known as 'cookies' or `brownies') and eaten. Smoking marijuana is referred to as 'turning on'. The `reefers' are often wetted with the tongue in order to slow the burning. This does not make the reefer very pleasing aesthetically, but it serves a practical purpose. Quite frequently the 'reefer' is grey, soggy, repulsive looking and unhygienic. Some people prefer a pipe or a 'bong' and the best pipes for this purpose have smaller bowls than ordinary pipes. 'Reefers' or pipes are frequently smoked in groups, the pipe being passed among the people sitting in a dark room in which candles and incense are kept burning. Smokers may either be members of a 'closed', or an 'open' circle. The difference lies in the amount of information that is exchanged about the stuff. In the 'closed' circle, for instance, marijuana is consumed but information like where it came from, is not disseminated. On the other hand, the 'open' circle has no restrictions about discussing the origin, amount, distribution and so forth about the drug. 'Open' circles are thus much more relaxed and intimate. A puff on a 'reefer' is called a toke , and the object is to inhale as deeply and hold it in the lungs as long as possible. Smoking a 'reefer' as if it were an ordinary cigarette would produce little effect. The smoker must hold the smoke deep in his lungs for at least twenty to thirty seconds until it penetrates the lung tissues and enters the blood. A typical 'reefer' contains about 500 mg of marijuana. It we take the THC content of marijuana as about 1 per cent, then the THC content of an average 'reefer' comes to around 5 mg. Many high quality `reefers' may contain up to 1 gm of very high quality marijuana (containing upto 10 to 15 per cent THC). Thus a high quality 'reefer' might easily contain 100 to 150 mg of THC and if sprinkled with hash oil, the potency might be doubled. THC delivery by smoking is 50 per cent efficient. Thus even a low quality 'reefer' delivers about 2.5 mg THC to the body. This is equivalent to 7.5 mg THC taken orally. Many heavy users consume numerous high quality `reefers' each day, thus incorporating almost 150 to 200 mg THC into their bodies. When such a large quantity is taken for two to three weeks and then abruptly discontinued, withdrawal symptoms occur. While the butt of an ordinary cigarette is thrown away, the end of a 'reefer', called the roach because it resembles one, is the most potent part because much of the THC collects there during smoking. It is at least one‑third and possibly half as powerful as the whole 'joint'. Various ways of consuming the roach have been devised, ranging from eating it to the more refined method of smoking it by holding it with a hairpin or some other special device to avoid burning the fingers. Among the objects recovered from Kanti and Ravindra's pockets were some roaches too (see upper right of fig 1). Marijuana is almost never injected intravenously (in stark contrast to heroin). However, some illicit intravenous use has been reported with subjects 'shooting' crude marijuana, but this remains an extremely unusual practice and is accompanied by severe medical complications. Another product from the cannabis plant is charas , also known as hashish in the Western world. Hashish contains 10 to 15 per cent THC and is much stronger than marijuana. Thus bhang, ganja , and charas represent three different varieties of the same drug, but in increasing concentrations. In the underworld of drugs, there is only one other drug which is available in so widely variable concentrations and this is alcohol (although it is more or less socially acceptable, unlike marijuana). A weaker brand of alcohol is beer (which may be compared to bhang ), a stronger is wine (comparable to marijuana) and a still stronger, whiskey (comparable to charas ). Charas or hashish is of a dark green or brown colour. It is the concentrated resin exuding from the leaves and stems of plants. It is very popular with the hippies. When I examined the contents recovered from Kanti and Ravindra's pockets, I became quite sure they were returning from a marijuana party. I have already mentioned that I recovered bhang and roaches from their pockets, but I recovered some other interesting items as well. At the bottom of the fig 1 you can see a strange looking pipe which is actually a marijuana pipe. So it appeared they were smoking marijuana too, besides eating Bhang . Eating and smoking cannabis products can lead to a drunken like state, and that may produce problems in driving. That is how I concluded that Bhushan must be speaking the truth. But I needed to gather more scientific proof-one which could stand the rigors of the cross-examination in a court of law. So I took chloroform swabs from the fingers and the inner aspects of the teeth. Taking chloroform swabs involves wetting a piece of cotton in some chloroform and rubbing it on the area from where you want to take a swab. In this case I rubbed it over the fingers and inner aspects of the teeth of the two deceased persons. If the two had been eating and smoking cannabis products, some cannabis components must be sticking to these areas. The chemical analysis report from the lab confirmed that the fingers and the teeth of the two deceased indeed contained THC, an important chemical found in Cannabis as we have already seen. This was a confirmatory proof that both of them were returning from a marijuana party. Since they had consumed too much Cannabis, they were unable to drive well. This had actually caused the accident and their death. This conclusion led to immediate release of Bhushan from police custody. When the police released Bhushan, he came and fell on my legs. He said that his life had been saved because of me only. The poor fellow did not know that it was not me, but forensic science which had saved him. I only used the science! ( To protect the identity of the individuals, their names, as well as the various dates of occurrence have been changed )

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-35 DEATH BY HEROIN On 31 January 1993, a very interesting case was brought to me. A 23 year old man was found dead in his home in bathroom. The door of the bathroom was ajar, and the body was lying in a supine position (Please reproduce fig XX-6 on page 536 here). The man was identified as one Satish Malik who had moved in that house only about 2 years back. The police did not find any marks of injury on his body. But they did find one strange looking mark on his neck (please reproduce fig XX-15 on page 542 here). It was suspected that Malik had been strangled by someone. Their main reason for thinking this was the strange looking mark on the neck. When the police made enquiries they found that Malik was a married man. He had married one Sarita only last year. He worked as an executive in a cloth firm in New Delhi. From the day Malik had married, there was some fight going on in the house. Malik thought that his wife Sarita was infidel while Sarita denied this outright. But Malik wouldn't listen to her explanations. The fight increased to such an extent that Sarita's brother Ramesh had to intervene. Ramesh was a well-built man, who did not have a very good reputation in his locality. Some people believed that he did some underhand business too. He was believed to be connected with the underworld. Ramesh told Malik not to harass his sister, but Malik wouldn't listen. Ultimately Ramesh got so frustrated that once he even threatened Malik with dire consequences, if he did not mend his ways. Many people knew about this, because the next day Malik went around and told how he had been threatened by his brother-in-law, who should actually be more respectful to him. On the day of death, Sarita had gone to her friend's house in Jullunder to attend a wedding. She was to come back after five days. On the morning of 31 January, Ramesh visited Malik apparently to admonish him once again. Many neighbors saw him entering the house at about 9.00 am. Soon after they heard angry and excited voices coming from inside the house. All the neighbors knew the trouble brewing in the house, so they did not care. At about 10.00 am they saw Ramesh stamping out of the house in anger. There were no further voices from inside the house. At 12.00 noon, the washerwoman came as usual. But when she rang the bell, no one opened the door. She got suspicious and informed the neighbors. The neighbors knew what had transpired in the morning and they informed the police. The police broke open the door, and found the dead body of Malik as already described. All evidence pointed towards Ramesh as the killer. The police immediately summoned him and held him responsible for the murder. Ramesh seemed horrified to know that his brother-in-law had actually been killed. He admitted that he did have some problems with his brother-in-law, but actually he never intended to do anything to him. How could he kill his own sister's husband? But the police wouldn't listen to him, and took him to their "torture chamber" to get the truth out of him. It was at this stage that the case was brought to me. When I had a careful look at the body, I found that there was a fine froth coming out from his nose and mouth (please reproduce fig XX-22 on page 546 here). This immediately made me suspicious of something. I asked the investigating officer to show me his shoes. The police officer was initially a little bit surprised, but he knew that if I was asking for something, it really was an important thing. When the shoes were brought to me, I reflected their "tongue" (the movable squarish shaped leather portion over which shoe laces are tied), and looked at the inside. As I had suspected, I found that they were torn from the inside and some cotton had been removed from them (Please reproduce fig XX-4 on page 534 here) . My suspicions were confirmed. But just to be doubly sure, I looked at his legs. Again as expected, I saw some tattoos there (please reproduce fig XX-20 on page 544 here). On the wrist there was a long needle track (please reproduce fig XX-13 on page 541 here). I clinched the diagnosis. I called the investigating officer, and told him that Ramesh hadn't killed Malik. I told him that I knew how he had died, and asked him not to torture Ramesh any more and release him at once. The police officer looked back at me in surprise and said,"But sir, how could you say just by looking at the shoes, legs and wrists that Ramesh hasn't killed him? There is such a strong circumstantial evidence against Ramesh. You have not even conducted an autopsy. How could you say that Ramesh has nothing to do with this death?" "Well, I have seen such cases in the past", I said. Of course the subsequent autopsy conducted by me proved that I was right. The cause of death after conducting an autopsy was the same as I had thought earlier immediately after seeing the body. The readers may be surprised as to what magic I had done to find out the cause of death so quickly. Well, before going any further, let me tell you a little bit about a dangerous narcotic drug heroin . Heroin is derived from morphine, which itself comes from the poppy plant. It is self‑administered by the addict in a number of ways: he can orally ingest it, sniff it, inject it beneath the skin (known as skin‑popping because the skin is popped up and heroin injected), or inject it directly into a vein (known as mainlining because it is put in a main line, so to say). Mainlining is the most popular method of heroin intake. Consuming the drug by mouth or by sniffing does not give rise to as intense a pleasure as by injecting it directly into a vein. This is because the drug is broken down by the stomach juices. In addition, the veins carrying the drug from the stomach, first pass through the liver, where most of the remaining drug is broken down further. For this very reason, whenever doctors want to give morphine to their patients for medical reasons, they do so by injection. One of the most amazing things in the dark and murky world of addicts is the mechanics of mainlining. For this the addicts use an elaborate paraphernalia, sometimes called outfits, works or toys , which include a variety of items (Please reproduce fig XX-3 on page 533 here). A spoon or some similar device called a cooker , is used for mixing and heating the heroin after being mixed with a small quantity of water. Sometimes the handle of the spoon is bent downwards and "doubled on itself" so that the hollow of the spoon will remain in level when kept on the table. The syringe, or spike as it is sometimes called, is either a commercially manufactured syringe or a home‑made syringe consisting of an eye‑ dropper with a rubber suction device. The needle is then fitted to the eyedropper. The kit also includes a small ball of cotton, which is placed in the spoon (please note the small cotton ball in the spoon). The heroin is drawn into the syringe through this cotton. This ball of cotton is supposed to filter out any "poison", but, ironically it is this very ball which adds dirt to the already dirty solution. Moreover, sometimes small cotton fibers get sucked in the syringe and are inadvertently injected into the vein. This is very dangerous because these cotton fibers get lodged in the lungs leading to serious problems. The same dirty cotton is used again and again and what is quite amazing is that the addicts really believe that the cotton is filtering out the poison. In times of distress, when a fresh supply of the drug is not available, a typical addict will add this cotton to plain water and inject the resulting solution into his veins. Since the cotton becomes saturated with heroin through overuse, the resulting solution does give some relief to the addict. This practice is known as shooting the cottons . Malik was actually a heroin addict . He used to take heroin regularly. He had removed the cotton from the "tongue" of his shoes only because of this purpose. Because of drug addiction his family life was never well-adjusted. The figure of "works" also shows a long cord. This is used as a tourniquet. Also known as the tie‑rag it is any article such as the cord shown, a necktie, towel or a belt that can be tied around the arm or leg to make the veins very prominent (please reproduce fig XX-19 on page 544 here). This is a method which doctors use to given injections directly into the vein. The tourniquet is placed and tightened slightly above the elbow, so that veins in the front of the elbow become prominent. It is very easy to introduce a needle in the swollen vein. Those, who are unable to get hold of a hypodermic needle, tend to use things like the safety pin, sewing needle and even razor blades to make a hole in the vein and insert the eyedropper directly into the vein hole. On occasions, the addict might personalize the kit by making up a special leather or metal container. More often it is simply placed in an empty cigarette package, wrapped with a rubber band and hidden in the dirtiest corner of the addict's home. The reason for this is to take advantage of the fact that most investigators do not like to get their hands dirty during searches. I asked the police officer to search Malik's house thoroughly. On searching sure enough, the whole "kit" was found in one of his desks. Now let me tell you how the addict takes heroin. He begins the preparation for injection by emptying the contents of his sachet of heroin (known as bindle or balloon ), into the cooker . After adding enough water to liquefy the substance, a heat source is placed at the bottom of the cooker and the substance is observed closely until the first bubble appears. The addict's intention is to attain approximate body temperature. Then the solution from the cooker is drawn through the cotton ball into the syringe. Just at this moment, the tourniquet is applied above the elbow. Now the needle is inserted slowly into the vein until the blood can be seen coming into the eye‑dropper. The rush of the blood in the dropper indicates that the vein has been successfully punctured. The drug is now pushed into the vein. Some addicts prefer to suck the blood back into the dropper three to four times in order to ensure that no trace of the drug remains in the dropper. This practice is known as booting . The effect of the injection is immediate and intense. Addicts describe it in various ways, ranging from a pleasant tingling sensation running up and down the limbs and settling in the abdominal region, to a sensation not unlike a sexual orgasm which tapers off into a feeling of lethargic well‑being, resulting in a disregard for problems, and a total lack of a sense of responsibility. The condition is deeply desired by the addict and lasts for several hours following an injection. An addict generally begins his career by injecting in the veins of the elbow. Due to repeated injections, however, the veins collapse and deteriorate and the addict is forced to move further down the forearm and then towards the back of the hand. As further deterioration takes place, the addict moves down to the feet and then upwards, travelling from the legs to the thighs and the groin area. Finally all these veins are scarred. A heroin addict can be spotted at once by just looking at the condition of his veins. When all the limb veins become scarred, some addicts start injecting the drug into the veins of the neck; this may cause needle track marks there. These were the marks that the police saw on Malik's neck, and thought he had been throttled. Actually they were the needle track marks which were produced because sometimes Malik used to take heroin through the veins of his neck . Sometimes an addict can get a sample of heroin, which is adulterated with a dangerous poison, strychnine. Its injection known as hot shot can cause quick death. Hot shot can also occur when an addict, used to injecting heroin of 3 to 5 per cent purity, gets a purer blend of the drug. Death can occur in this case, since the addict is not used to higher concentrations. One of the strangest findings in these addicts is the finding of strange tattoos. I found these tattoos in Malik's legs as you already know. The addicts make these tattoos to hide the needle track marks that are produced by repeated injections of heroin. They are afraid that if someone looks at their needle marks, he will at once recognize that they were drug addicts. Instead if they hide their needle marks under the tattoos, no one would know about them. I found the tattoos on Malik's arms too (please reproduce fig XX-14 here). After Ramesh left on that fateful day, Malik became very depressed and wanted to have his daily ration of heroin. Unfortunately the heroin sample he had bought the previous day from his drug dealer contained strychnine, and this killed him instantaneously. His body organs revealed presence of both heroin as well as strychnine. When the police released Ramesh, he came and fell on my legs. He said that his life had been saved because of me only. The poor fellow did not know that it was not me, but forensic science which had saved him. I only used the science! ( To protect the identity of the individuals, their names, as well as the various dates of occurrence have been changed )

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-34 DEATH BY COCAINE On 23 December 1992, a very interesting case was brought to me. A 23 year old youth was found dead in a park. The youth was identified as one Geeta who studied in a local college. The police found several wounds on her body (Please reproduce figures XX-16,17,18 on page 543 here). It was suspected that Geeta had been killed by someone. Their main reason for thinking this was the multiplicity of the so-called wounds on her body. When the police made enquiries they found that Geeta belonged to a rich trader family. Her father had a flourishing export business. Geeta used to get a good amount of pocket money. Lately she was demanding her parents to increase her pocket money to Rs 10,000 per month. Previously she was getting only about Rs 5,000. It was found that lately she was going steady with a boy Harish, who also studied in the same college. Geeta was previously in love with another boy Ganesh, who was somewhat of a dada of his college. When Geeta switched favors, Ganesh held Harish responsible for this and told him to keep off his girl friend. He also told Geeta not to meet Harish. But neither Geeta nor Harish paid any attention to him. Once while sitting in canteen Ganesh bragged among his goons that if Geeta did not mend her ways he would finish her off. The police immediately summoned Ganesh and held him responsible for the murder. Ganesh seemed horrified to know that Geeta had actually been killed. He admitted that he did brag about killing her, but actually he had done nothing to her. But the police wouldn't listen to him, and took him to their "torture chamber" to get the truth out of him. It was at this stage that the case was brought to me. When I had a careful look at the body, I found that she had a strange key like thing dangling from her neck, which the police had completely ignored thinking it was an ordinary medallion usually worn by girls (reproduce fig XX-24 on page 551 here). This was not the ordinary medallion. It gave me some inkling as to the cause of her death. Then I looked closely at the hair of her nose, and as I had suspected, I found some white particles sticking there. I plucked some of those hairs with tweezers, and sent them for chemical analysis. I wanted to find out the chemical composition of those particles. Her nasal septum, the cartilage that divides the nose into two nostrils, showed a perforation. I immediately realized how she must have died. I called the investigating officer, and told him that Ganesh hadn't killed Geeta. I told him that I knew how she had died, and asked him not to torture Ganesh any more and release him at once. The police officer looked back at me in surprise and said,"But sir, you have hardly had a look at the body, let alone do an autopsy. How could you say that Ganesh has nothing to do with this death? How can you tell the cause of death in this case?" "Well, experience my boy, experience!", I said in smug confidence, and then wrote out a cause of death, on a rough sheet of paper, and asked him to keep it in his pocket. Of course the subsequent autopsy conducted by me proved that I was right. The cause of death given by me after conducting an autopsy was the same as I had given the police officer on the rough sheet of paper immediately after seeing the body. The readers may be surprised as to what magic I had done to find out the cause of death so quickly. Well, before going any further, let me tell you a little bit about a dangerous narcotic drug cocaine . 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. This is what I found in Geeta's dead body, and that is why I took no time in concluding that she had died of cocaine poisoning. Geeta was actually a cocaine addict . She had to buy cocaine regularly from the underworld of drug dealers. This was the reason she was pestering her parents for increasing her allowance. Usually for snorting, the users simply put the cocaine powder on a paper or a knife blade, hold it up to the nose, close one nostril and snort. Some users, however, adopt a very elaborate ritual. For instance they use a coke spoon, purchased from head shops (illegal shops selling drugs and drug paraphernalia), which is a highly ornamental tiny spoon, to hold about 50 mg of cocaine powder. The spoon, containing the cocaine, is brought up to the nostril and then the cocaine snorted. One can often identify a cocaine addict by seeing this spoon, which is often attached to a chain and worn round the neck. Some coke spoons have two small bowls so that the cocaine can be snorted into both nostrils at the same time. This was the key like thing which I found around Geeta's body, and which had been ignored by the police as an ordinary medallion. It was actually the spoon used by her for snorting. In fact, this spoon is so characteristic of cocaine users, that just its presence was enough for me to say that Geeta was a cocaine addict. Some addicts inject the cocaine directly into the veins or just beneath the skin. Injecting cocaine beneath the skin is commonly known as skin popping . It can cause ulcers, which often look like maps of various countries. Because of their fancied resemblance to maps, these ulcers are also known as geographical ulcers . I found these ulcers also on Geeta's dead body. Obviously Geeta was not only snorting cocaine, but injecting it too. Because of this practice, there were ulcers all over her body. These were the so-called wounds which the police was suspecting as indicative of homicide. She was probably going to the park to have her regular dose of cocaine. On the day of her death, she went to the park, and chose a lonely corner for her regular dose. First of all she snorted cocaine for some time. This was responsible for the white cocaine particles sticking to her nasal hair. Then she perhaps decided that she should inject cocaine for more intense feeling. During the procedure, she accidentally injected an overdose of cocaine. That is how she had died. It was an accidental death due to overdose of cocaine. No one had murdered her. Chemical analysis of her body organs revealed lethal doses of cocaine. Analysis of the white powder particles sticking to her nasal hair also turned out to be cocaine! When the police told Geeta's already depressed parents that she was a cocaine addict, they couldn't believe their ears. They realized that they should not have been giving such a heavy pocket money to her. Well, this is a warning to all parents to see what their children have been doing with their pocket money. It is not surprising if the large pocket money they are demanding is for the purposes of narcotism only. When the police released Ganesh, he came and fell on my legs. He said that his life had been saved because of me only. The poor boy did not know that it was not me, but forensic science which had saved him. I only used the science! ( To protect the identity of the individuals, their names, as well as the various dates of occurrence have been changed )

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-33 DOWRY DEATHS On 23 April 1993, 25 year old newly married Namita died in a Faridabad hospital due to burn injuries sustained in her home. She had received burn injuries on 21 January of that year. For almost 2 months she struggled bravely with her burn injuries, but ultimately infection supervened and she had to succumb to her injuries. During her illness, she gave a statement to the magistrate to the effect that her in-laws frequently used to beat her for bringing insufficient dowry. This put her husband and parents-in-law in great trouble. To understand the case fully, let us begin at the beginning. Namita was married to Vinod, a 26 year old boy on 13 January 1992. At the time of marriage it was decided that Rs 1 lakh will be spent on marriage. Namita's father was a poor man, yet he somehow arranged for the money on loan, and paid the dowry as stipulated. However just 2 weeks before marriage, Vinod attended the marriage of one of his friends Shyam. Shyam was the son of a rich businessman, and he was getting married to an equally rich person's daughter. He got lavish presents in his marriage from his wife's side, including a brand new Maruti car. This turned Vinod's mind topsy-turvy. He also began dreaming of getting a car in his marriage. His parents Gyan Ram and Somwati who also attended the marriage also began having the same dreams. They forgot that their own social status was far below that of Shyam and his family. This caused a major rift between Vinod's and Namita's family even before the marriage. Although a dowry of Rs 1 lakh had been stipulated at the time of marriage, the parents of Vinod suddenly changed their stance and began demanding for more dowry, which now included a Maruti car as well. Namita's father told that he could not arrange for such a heavy sum, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. Actually Namita's father should have broken the marriage there and then, but he was a socially conscious individual and did not want to earn a bad name in the society. The marriage cards had been distributed to all the relatives, and if the marriage got cancelled now, it would a very bad name to the family. So he agreed to give a Maruti car as soon as possible after the marriage. But he had no idea, how he was going to arrange for a car. He was already up to his neck in debt. But since he had to marry his daughter, he agreed to give whatever his son-in-law desired. Needless to say, just after marriage, trouble started for Namita. In her in-law's house, there were 3 individuals, her husband Vinod, and his parents. She served all of them with full zeal and affection, yet she failed to win their hearts. The reason was that there eyes were set on a new Maruti car. Whenever Vinod saw his friend Shyam roaming around with his wife in the new Maruti car, his heart would miss a beat. He would also start dreaming about a similar car. He would come home, ask his wife when her father was going to give him a car, and on not getting a satisfactory answer beat her badly. His parents also frequently joined in the beating. On Deepawali of the previous year (1992), the matters assumed a very serious pitch. It had been told to Namita's father that he should positively arrange for a car by the Deepawali, which they wanted as a present for the first Deepawali after the wedding. But her father could only arrange for a new scooter and not the new car. This enraged all the three members of her in-law's house, her husband Vinod, her father-in-law, Gyan Ram, and her mother-in-law Somwati. They began openly cursing Namita's father, even in her presence. This made her very sad. She discussed about this matter with her husband Vinod too, but he was also mad after the car, so he also refused to listen to her. Meanwhile an interesting development had occurred. Namita's parents saw another girl whose parents promised to give a car to anyone who would marry their daughter. This made them mad with greed, and they somehow decided to do away with her. They had come to know, that in his lifetime, Namita's father would never be able to give them a car, and it was no use asking for the car again and again. On the other hand if they did away with Namita, and married their son to that other girl, they could get the car very easily. They told about this plan to Vinod, who also agreed to participate in the plan. On 21 January, Namita had gone to fetch milk in the morning, when the three hatched a devilish plan to do away with her. When she came back, they began beating her badly. Gyan Ram brought a wooden cane from somewhere and hit her hardly on the legs. The idea was to make her immobile so she could not run away for help. This broke the bone of her left leg, and she began limping. Then Somwati brought a can of kerosene and doused her sari with it. Vinod lighted a match and set her sari on fire. The fire at once engulfed Namita. Both her legs were severely burnt. The poor girl couldn't even run as her left leg had been broken by Gyan Ram. Now all the three began shouting that Namita had fallen in a tub of hot water and had sustained scalds. The neighbors collected in no time to Vinod's house. They saw a horrible scene there. Namita's sari had burnt completely and she was lying naked on the floor crying and sobbing with pain. The males were so ashamed that they immediately put a blanket over her. With the help of some females, they admitted Namita to the nearest hospital. I was contacted by the police when Namita was in the hospital and had given the statement that she had been beaten and burnt by her husband and in-laws. The in-law's story of course was that they were innocent. According to them, she had accidentally fallen in a tub of boiling water which was lying in the bathroom for taking bath. Since it was winter season, everyone in the household took bath with hot water. The boiling tub was lying there in the bathroom. Everyone used to take little water from there in a separate bucket, and mix cold water in it to his liking, so that the water became less warm and to the liking of each one concerned. According to them, the mistake that Namita did was to think that this water was ready for bath. So she took off her sari and entered the tub, which caused scalds on her legs. As for the fracture of her leg, they said, that on having got burnt, she jumped out of the bath and began running. In the way she slipped and must have sustained the fracture. On the face of it, their story seemed very plausible. It certainly accounted not only for all the injuries sustained by Namita, but even for why she was found naked in the verandah by the neighbors. But they forgot that science could catch their lies very easily. I saw Namita when she was in the hospital. I had requested the investigating police officer to take me there. What I saw was very scary. The bone of her left leg (technically known as Tibia) was broken. The doctors were trying to fix the fracture by a procedure known as external fixation (Please reproduce fig 3.25 (a) on page 41 here). When I looked at the underside of her legs, I was horrified to see how badly they were burnt (Please reproduce fig 3.25 (b) on page 41 here). She was in such a state of shock that she could not even pass the urine, and the doctors had to pass a tube through her genitals to make her pass urine. In short, she was in a really bad shape. But what I could immediately make out was that her burns were not scalds as claimed by her in-laws. Scalds are caused by boiling water and liquids while burns are caused by flame. If Namita had really received injuries by hot boiling water as claimed by her in-laws, her injuries should have been scalds, and not burns. Scalds have an altogether different appearance than burns. Scalds have blisters while burns do not have any blisters over the area of burns. I did not see any blisters over the burnt area, so I decided that Vinod and his parents' story was wrong. As for the fracture of the leg, it was a very massive fracture, with tibia breaking into 4 different pieces. This was a definite indication that someone had hit her with a hard weapon. By falling she could never have sustained a fracture of the leg. At the most she would suffered a fracture of her hip bone or thigh bone, and even that fracture would have been of quite a simple nature. Such a massive fracture of tibia definitely indicated that she had been beaten. The court accepted my arguments, and gave life imprisonment to all the three culprits. (To protect the identity of the individuals, their names, as well as the various dates of occurrence have been changed).

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-32 MAKING WILL UNDER A HYPNOTIC TRANCE I encountered one of the most astounding cases of my life in March 1995. The facts of the case are quite interesting. Rama Devi was a 63 year old woman, who had inherited a good fortune after the death of her husband Mange Ram. Mange Ram worked as a share broker and had earned well during his life. Rama Devi did not understand the share business at all. She had studied only upto higher secondary class and could thus be called a semi-literate person. She could read simple texts like Ramayana and Mahabharata. This was all she ever needed to read anyway. She could also read and write letters in simple English. She was a good natured, religious minded, modest woman who lived a simple life. For a 63 year old individual she was maintaining reasonably good health. Her only trouble was a constant nagging backache. She had seen many doctors for her trouble, and even some sadhus and fakirs, but none had been able to cure her. She was known to have said on several occasions that the backache was giving her a great problem, and she was prepared to go to any length to have it permanently cured. Rama Devi had a son Ramesh and a daughter Rani. Ramesh was a 24 year old bright boy, who was struggling to set up his own business. Rama Devi was helping him financially, and there was every indication that with the passage of time, he would settle down decently. He was a hard working boy, who was putting his mother's money to good use. Rani, a 34 year old lady was married to one Surendra Mohan who was a 43 year old man. He did odd jobs for a living. His income was erratic and often he didn't earn well enough to even feed his family properly. His mother-in-law Rama Devi often offered to help him financially to set up some good business, but he never showed any interest. In fact he had no interest in any work whatsoever. He just wanted to relax and have money without working for it. He had some interest in tantra and had learnt this art from some sadhus with whom he spent much of his time. Nobody knew how much tantra he actually knew, but it was well-known that he could hypnotise a person to some extent. Rama Devi had inherited a large estate. Nobody knew how much she actually owned exactly, but some rough estimates suggested that she might have owned cash and property worth 50 crores. Because of Surendra Mohan's erratic behavior she was not very happy with him, and there were ample indications that she was not going to leave him much after her death. She was going to finalize her will shortly, and the whole household was anxious about it. On 20th March 1995, Rama Devi was found dead in her bed under mysterious circumstances. There were some nail marks on her throat, and from them, the police concluded that she must have been murdered. An autopsy (conducted by me) proved that she had been killed by throttling. The police had no idea who had killed her. For all they knew, some burglar might have broken in the house and killed her. When the will was opened after her death, it caused tremendous upheaval in the household. She had left everything to Surendra Mohan leaving hardly anything for her own son Ramesh. This was a totally unexpected thing, and naturally the two facts- her sudden killing, and her strange will- led many to conclude that there was something black at the bottom. But what... Before going further, I would like to digress a bit, and tell something about hypnotism and its influence on writing. The word hypnosis is derived from the Greek hypnos, god of sleep. In fact the hypnotic state superficially resembles sleep. The art of hypnotism has been practiced since the earliest times, but it was introduced as a therapeutic technique (to cure diseases) by the Austrian doctor Franz Anton Mesmer (1733-1815). About 300 years earlier, the Swiss physician Paracelsus (1490-1541) had insisted that there was a kind of "animal magnetism" in all living beings and that this magnetism was influenced by planets. In the 18th century, the British physician Richard Mead (1673-1754) wrote a book on the influence of the planets on the body. Mesmer read that book and was quite influenced by this idea. He further developed this notion. He thought that there was a Universal Magnetic Fluid which pervaded all human beings, and it was presumably the distribution of this fluid in the body that determined health or disease. Initially he used magnets to draw out this "mesmeric fluid", but later on he modified his ideas. He came to the conclusion that every person possessed magnetic forces, and even these forces could be used to influence the distribution of the magnetic fluid in other persons, thus effecting cures. In effect, he replaced magnets with his own hands. This idea was later brought to perfection by his disciples. Mesmer attempted to put his views into practice in Vienna and in various other towns, but it was not until he came to Paris in 1778 that he achieved success. Here he opened a clinic in which he treated all kinds of diseases by "animal magnetism". The patients were seated around a tub (a baquet) which contained various chemicals and from which protruded iron rods that were applied to the affected potions of the body. The room was darkened, appropriate music was provided, and Mesmer appeared in a lilac robe, passing from one patient to another and touching each one with his hands or his wand. By this means Mesmer was apparently able to treat some cases of hysteria. He was also able to "mesmerize" or hypnotise people by this technique. According to him, a hypnotised person was a "magnetized" person. He became so popular in France that even the French queen Marie Antoinette (1755-93) became his follower! Finally branded as a charlatan by his medical colleagues, Mesmer was forced to leave Paris, and he shortly faded into obscurity. Although Mesmer had done pioneering work in the field of hypnotism, his pupil Marquis de Puysegar finally proved that hypnotism was equally effective without the use of magnets, wires, and tubs of water; it could equally easily be done by the use of hands. It was in 1842, that James Braid of Manchester discovered that a hypnotic trance could be induced by gazing at a bright object, and it was he who first suggested the term "hypnotism". Before this time, the word "mesmerism" was used. Despite their initial success, Mesmer and his disciples gradually faded from the scene. However, their methods and results were the center of controversy in scientific circles for many years; in fact, mesmerism in the early part of the nineteenth century was a great source of heated discussion. This discussion eventually led to a revival of interest in the hypnotic phenomenon. Hypnosis is induced by having the subject fixate on a small shiny object while suggesting that his or her eyes are growing heavy and that he or she is relaxing into drowsiness and is finally asleep, although the operator is careful to inform the subject that he or she will remain alert to the suggestions and commands which will be given. As the subject enters the hypnotic trance, he or she may appear to be in a sleeplike state in which responsiveness to surroundings is reduced. The eyes may close, breathing slows down, and he will ordinarily not engage in activities until commanded to do so by the hypnotist. However, recent research has shown that the subject can remain alert while under hypnosis and that commanding or authoritative statements to the effect that he is going to sleep are not necessary to the induction of the trance. Studies of the electroencephalograms (EEG) or the "brain waves" of hypnotized subjects reveal that they resemble those of waking individuals rather than those who are asleep. The subject is awake but is in a state of heightened suggestibility. This means that the hypnotized person is in an uncritical attitude and can be made to experience delusions, hallucinations, anesthesia (operations under hypnosis are well-known), pain and other similar sensations. He may also be made to obey your commands. Normally a person may not obey you, but under a state of hypnosis he is almost sure to obey you. He may be made to enact unusual roles-crawling about on all fours, barking like a dog, crowing like a rooster-that he would ordinarily find uncongenial to his normal waking state. The subject's heightened state of suggestibility and uncritical attitude do not, however, mean that criminal or immoral behavior will be carried out at the command of the hypnotist. Subjects given such commands usually awaken or fail to carry them out. Thus if someone hypnotises a person, and asks him to commit some murder, chances are that the hypnotised person would not obey him. However there is no guarantee that a subject might not perform an immoral or illegal act under hypnotism. One of the most striking phenomena of hypnosis is the posthypnotic suggestion. This can be demonstrated by suggestions to the subject that he will carry out an activity at a prearranged signal after he has been awakened from the trance. The subject will have no memory of having been given such a suggestion. For example, a student subject might be instructed to arise in the middle of a lecture and go and open a window upon seeing the hypnotist (also the course instructor) take a handkerchief from his pocket. Many subjects will carry out such acts, being unable to explain why they did so other than to say they felt a strong urge to do so in spite of being embarrassed. It has been known for quite some time that hypnotised persons may be asked to write things which they really do not want to. However the writing under hypnotic trance differs substantially from the normal writing. It is this part of hypnotism that concerns us here. Have a look at some of the writings written under the hypnotic trance (Please reproduce fig 1,2,3 on pages 132 and 133 here). Fig 1 i s divided in three parts. The top potion shows writing during a hypnotic trance. The middle portion shows the writing just after the trance was over, and the lower portion shows the writing 20 minutes after the trance. Fig 2 is divided in four portions. The top portion shows writing before the trance; the second portion, during the trance; the third portion, just after the trance and the final portion 20 minutes after the trance. Fig 3 i s also divided on the patten of fig 2. From these figures perhaps you can make out the characteristics of writing during a hypnotic trance. During the hypnotic trance, the angle between the paper and the pen is about 300, while during the normal writing, the angle is about 450. The reduced angle during the hypnotic trance indicates the clumsiness with which the pen is held during the trance. This causes writing to become clumsy. Muscular co-ordination also becomes improper during hypnotism. During trance, the number of errors increase. Many people forget to put the dot over the i, and many forget to make all three limbs of the letters `M' and `W'. Retouching of strokes is a characteristic of normal writing. By retouching the strokes, we normally correct our mistakes. During the hypnotic trance, the subject does not retouch his strokes. This is a characteristic of writing during the trance state. The line quality is poor during the trance state. During the trance, the person is not concerned about the line quality. One reason for this could be that during the trance state, the eyes of the subject are usually closed. In all the three samples shown here, you can see that the line quality is poor during the trance state, but it is good before and after the trance state. Another characteristic of writing during the trance state is the poor state of alignment and of the relative position of letters. This can well be seen in the samples shown here. During trance writing, the curves become flattened and the angles become blunt. Thus a `C' would appear more like a `['. Similarly the angles become blunt. A `V' would appear more like `U' because the lower angle becomes blunt. This feature is seen in all letters which have either a curve or an angle. Terminals of letters become bigger during trance state. The writing seems to end with a "flourish". The size of letters is also quite big during the trance state. Coming back to our case. When the police approached me for the post-mortem of Rama Devi, I asked them what the case was, and they told me the whole story. I immediately suspected that Surendra Mohan must have somehow hypnotised Rama Devi and during the trance stage, must have dictated her to write what he desired. I demanded to see the will. The police officer was initially surprised, but when I told him that the will was the key to the whole mystery, he produced the will before me. I studied the will for two hours, and came to the conclusion that it was indeed written during a trance state. Rama Devi had been killed because later on she would have repudiated her will, knowing that she had been hoodwinked into writing a wrong will. There were several features that gave the will away. First of all the lines were drooping. Secondly, the sizes of the letters were quite big. Thirdly there were terminal flourishes in almost all letters. Furthermore the curves of letters were flattened and the angles were blunted. Additional evidence was that none of i's were dotted and limbs of several m's and w's were missing constantly. I told the police officer that the will had been written under a hypnotic trance. Since it was known that Surendra Mohan was a practitioner of hypnotism, the suspicion naturally fell on him. He had motive to do so also, as otherwise Rama Devi was not going to give him anything. When confronted with these facts, Surendra Mohan admitted his guilt. He revealed the whole story to the police which was like this. On the night of 19th March, Surendra Mohan approached Rama Devi and told her that he could cure her of her constant backache by hypnotism. Although Rama Devi was quite reluctant to interact with Surendra Mohan, but she ultimately gave in, thinking that it could be worth a try, and she gave consent for hypnotising her. It is worth mentioning here that no one can be hypnotised against his will, so it was necessary for Surendra Mohan to obtain her consent somehow. You must have read in Mandrake comics that the hero Mandrake hypnotizes subjects as and when he wants, but in real life, hypnotism under these conditions is absolutely impossible. The consent of the subject is a must. Once Rama Devi gave her consent to be hypnotised, Surendra Mohan hypnotised her, and then instead of doing anything about her pain, brought out a paper and pen, and asked her to write all property in his name. He also arranged for two of his goons to put their signatures on the will as witnesses. After the will was signed by Rama Devi, Surendra Mohan and his two goons throttled Rama Devi. The court found my scientific evidence admissible, and punished Surendra Mohan with life imprisonment. The court also transferred all the property of Rama Devi to her genuine successor Ramesh. When Ramesh got the property, he came to my office and touched my feet. It was at that time, that I realized how important forensic science can be.

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-31 WHEN SEX PERVERSIONS LEAD TO ACCIDENTAL HANGING This time I am going to tell you about an extremely interesting case, which had completely baffled all police experts. On 24.11.1994, I was called to a scene of death. It was a dense forest on the outskirts of Delhi. A 22 year old male, who was later identified as Pyarelal, was found hanging from the branch of a tree. Both his knees were on the ground. This in itself was not abnormal or baffling. What had baffled the police, was the fact that his penis was exposed. It was coming out of the fly of his pants which was open. (Please reproduce fig. 3 on page 164 here: Source-"Medico-legal annual 1977) . On the ground was lying a sex magazine, showing the photographs of some nude girls. To all intents and purposes, it appeared that it was a sexual revenge murder. The police had definitely ruled out suicide. It is understandable that no suicidal patient would ever commit suicide in such an embarrassing position. In fact, it is well-known to all police officers and forensic experts alike that ladies who commit suicide by drowning take care to tie their saris near the legs. This is done, because otherwise the water frequently lifts up the sari, exposing their genitals, and no lady, even after death, wants to be exposed in that way. Inspector Matadeen had formed a hypothetical story like this. Pyarelal must be a flirt. He must be carrying on an affair with some girl of the locality. Her brother or some other relative may be against this relationship. They must have asked him to refrain from this activity. Pyarelal must not have paid any attention to this. So they murdered him and then hanged him from the branch of the tree, exposing his genitals. This could be a symbolic revenge for them, showing everyone what led him to his final undoing! To be sure, cases like this are not uncommon. I have seen some similar cases, but in those cases the culprits had amputated the penis of the deceased and inserted it in his own mouth! This act shows the utter contempt the killers bore in mind for the deceased's sexual excesses. When Matadeen made enquiries, it was found that Pyare had indeed made sexual advances towards a local girl Sarita. She was considered one of the sexiest girls of the locality. She had not heeded to his advances, and had even complained to her brother Ramdayal, who was something of a local goon. Ramdayal had once beaten Pyarelal very badly and had sworn to kill him if he saw him making advances towards his sister again. Ramdayal was called at once and enquiries made. All evidence was against him. Many people of the locality affirmed that he was a local goon, and had once beaten Pyarelal very badly. They said that once he had even sworn to kill Pyarelal in front of every one. However Ramdayal pleaded total ignorance. The police was about to take him to their infamous torture chamber, when I arrived at the scene. When I saw the scene, I was sure at once that it was not a case of murder. There had to be great disturbance around, had it been a case of murder, but the surroundings were quite normal and undisturbed. There were several other factors which made me come to that conclusion. If the police were thinking on the lines of murder, it was because they were entirely unaware of an entity known as sexual hanging. Sexual hanging is a very baffling kind of phenomenon which has not been understood in its entirety till now. To understand it let us dwell on a few vital facts first. If someone restricts the entry of air in his lungs (either by conscious stoppage or respiration, or by enclosing the face by a plastic bag), his blood will receive a lesser supply of oxygen. This state is technically known as anoxia (no oxygen) or hypoxia (less oxygen). It is a well-known fact that during a state of anoxia or hypoxia, a person can enjoy sexual pleasure much more intensely. Why this happens is not very clearly understood however. Some people, especially males, come to know of this fact quite accidentally or may be through some friends. They can then induce hypoxia by putting a noose round their neck, and then relaxing their body in such a way that part of the body weight comes to rest on the noose. The noose constricts the neck, producing a state of hypoxia. The person then masturbates, looking at pictures of nude women. Once the masturbatory act is over, these people remove the noose from their neck and go back to their work. Their intention is never to kill themselves. It is only to enjoy heightened sensations of sex during hypoxic states. These persons usually return to that place the next day and masturbate again, making the same complicated arrangements. A sexual deviant may go on repeating this practice for years! Sometimes however quite accidentally the pressure on the neck increases, and the person may die inadvertently. Thus sexual hanging is neither a case of murder nor of suicide. It is a case of accidental hanging. Sometimes, the victim ties himself up in quite a complicated fashion, and then masturbates (Please reproduce fig. 2 on page 163 here: Source-"Medico-legal annual 1977) . In this figure, the person has used a dog leash and collar straps for suspension. Towels were found folded over the penis and scrotum and a collar strap was buckled about his wrists which were behind his back. Such person are suffering from a special sexual perversion known as sexual bondage. They derive pleasure in sex only after they have been tied up. Sometimes the legs may be tied up in a complicated fashio n (please reproduce fig. 6 here: Source-"Medico-legal annual 1977). In this figure you can also see a towel beneath the underpants. Besides tying themselves up, some people cover their faces with rubberized sheets (Please reproduce fig. 4 and fig. 5 on page 165 here: Source-"Medico-legal annual 1977). This produces additional hypoxia. The main problem in these cases is to differentiate whether these cases were of suicide, murder or sexual hanging. The scene of sexual asphyxia is always some quiet place, (as in the case of Pyarelal) where the complicated preparations for an act can be made without fear of discovery or disturbance. Careful examination of the scene will reveal evidence that it has been used for similar purposes in the past. This evidence may be in the form of `grooving' of a wooden beam from which a rope has been suspended. As we have seen, some of these victims have been carrying such activity for years. Repeated acts of hanging themselves may produce this `grooving' which we have just talked about. In a similar manner, if the hanging used to be done from pipes, there may be scraping away of paintwork from pipes. The paraphernalia (Please reproduce fig. 9 here: Source-"Medico-legal annual 1977) of these perverts is quite interesting. It includes protective pads, straps, hooks and even parachute rigging. Sometimes hooks are also found at the scene. This also indicates the practice of sexual hanging (Please reproduce fig. 7 and fig. 8 here: Source-"Medico-legal annual 1977). In these photographs you can see a victim suspended from hooks! In the case of Pyarelal, the diagnosis of sexual hanging was not difficult to make. The penis was extruding through the pants, which made me suspicious at once. But what clinched the issue was the presence of a nude magazine near his feet. When I searched the scene, I could recover a bag, in which Pyarelal's sexual paraphernalia was lying. I gave the verdict of sexual hanging, and Ramdayal was released. Ramdayal came to me and told me that I had saved his life, otherwise he was sure to go to the gallows. On that day I realized how useful science can be!

Science in Crime Detection Author- Dr. Anil Aggrawal Click on the topic to access. More articles will be added daily ! When did the murder take place ? Who handled the gun ? Did the communists kill the czar ? Was she actually raped ? What do the bite marks tell us ? The Vital evidence ? When the body turns Blue ! When the body turns into Wax ! Testing for Homosexuality What do the Fingerprints tell us ? What do the Bones tell us ? Examining the Scene of Crime How do we recognize a person from his skull ? Contusions - The vital evidence Speech spectograms catch criminals Murder by electricity Deaths due to accidents Use of infrared photography in forensic science Deaths in police custody Defence Wounds What do the abrasions tell us ? Death by Air injection Knowing about car headlights Clues from Putrefaction Death by Strangulation Forgery of Cheques Deaths from hanging Drowning Deaths An unusual case of skull fracture An unusual case of death IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS MATERIAL IS COPYRIGHTED BY THE AUTHOR AND MAY NOT BE REPOSTED, REPRINTED OR OTHERWISE USED IN ANY MANNER WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR.

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-30 AN UNUSUAL CASE OF DEATH On 29 August 1994, I was faced with one of the strangest cases of my life. A 39 year old male Chaman Lal was found dead in a garden in Vasant Vihar area of the capital. He had gone out in his Maruti car to meet his friend Vasudev, on the previous night at about 8 pm. It was heavily raining when he went out, and his wife Shobha implored him not to go out in such heavy rain. Heavy rain had caused electric failures in some parts of city. There were no streetlights on the road, and it was difficult to find one's way in such dark night, especially as the heavy downpour had further reduced the visibility almost to a nil. Clouds were thundering and flashes of lightning could be seen among the clouds off and on, with great thundering noise. There had even been lightning strikes two times, with great crackling noise. The time was perfect to sit at home and enjoy a cup of tea. But Chaman Lal wouldn't listen. Ignoring his wife's cautions he set out to meet Vasudev. Chaman Lal's eagerness to meet Vasudev wasn't entirely unjustified. He had lent Rs two lakhs to Vasudev about 2 years back, to help him start a new business venture. The deal was that Vasudev would return the money along with appropriate interest within one year's time. But after one year passed, Vasudev couldn't repay even the original amount. Since then Vasudev had been pestering him off and on for the sum. The final date that he had set was 28 August for the repayment of loan. On 29th morning, Vasudev was leaving for Madras for a period of about 2 months. Chaman Lal knew that if he did not settle the matter on that very night, he would be held by another 2 months. So he wanted to settle the matter that very night itself. That was the reason he went out on that rainy, thundery night without heeding to his wife's advice. Chaman Lal had left the house at 8 pm. If everything had gone well, he should have returned by 10 pm, or at the most by 11 pm. But he didn't return that night at all. At 12 midnight, Shobha tried to phone Vasudev, but the heavy downpour had disrupted all telephone lines, and she could not get through. She was worried the whole night. She couldn't go out herself to look for him because of the heavy downpour. She thought that may be her husband had got late and decided to spend the night at Vasudev's house. The next day, the police found Chaman Lal's dead body in the park as has been described earlier. His car was found parked on the outside of the park. This was the story when Chaman Lal's body was found. Suspect number one was naturally Vasudev. He owed Rs 2 lakhs to Chaman Lal, and he was pestering him for money for a long time. Vasudev indeed have a very strong motive to kill Chaman Lal. The police theory that Vasudev had killed Chaman Lal was substantiated by many facts. Chaman Lal's cloths were ripped open as if he had been involved in a struggle. His boots were also damaged. In addition, Chaman Lal had suffered head injury too. Vasudev was not to be found in Delhi. He had left that very morning to Madras. This further strengthened police's belief that Vasudev had killed Chaman Lal. A police party was sent to Madras to track him down. He was soon brought to Delhi. But when he was asked about the murder of Chaman Lal, he seemed completely surprised. He not only strongly denied his hand in the murder, but asserted that he had not even met him the previous night. The police however did not believe his version, and put him under intense interrogation. But try hard as they would, Vasudev would not come out with a confession. It was at this stage that the case was brought to me. I demanded to see the dead body at once. From external appearances of the dead body it did appear as if someone had killed him. Out of curiosity, I searched his pockets. There were some sundry objects in his pockets including his car keys, a fountain pen and some coins. What was most surprising was that they had distorted very badly. It appeared as if someone had melted them in a pot. I also found a pen knife in his pocket. When I opened the knife, the iron blade attracted small pins as if it were a magnet. It appeared as if someone had magnetized the knife blade. Like a flash of lightning, the whole story flashed in my mind. Nobody had killed Chaman Lal. He had been killed by lightning. A few facts about lightning first. It is a phenomenon when there is an electric discharge between the highly charged clouds and the earth. The undersurface of a cloud is usually negatively charged. Thus virtually all discharges are negative. Approximately 5% of lightning flashes, however, are positive discharges. These are most frequent in mountainous regions. During lightning, one can see a huge flash of lightning between the clouds and the earth. It appears as if light is "falling" on earth. That is why, in common parlance, it is also known as "Bijli Girna". It is estimated that every year about 2 billion light flashes strike the earth, killing twenty people a day and hurting eighty more! Lightning releases tremendous amounts of electrical energy. As we have seen, it is an electrical discharge from a cloud to earth. The electric current from lightning is of about 20,000 Amperes, and comes at a voltage of 100 to 1000 million (108-109) volts! A single flash lasts for a very small duration however-just about 1/1000th of a second. 20,000 Amperes is a huge amount of current. In our normal daily life, currents of even 1 Ampere are not encountered, so scientists usually talk of a lesser quantity known as milliamperes. One ampere is equal to 1000 milliamperes. To get some idea of how much a milliampere is, one must know that in an ordinary household electric bulb of 100 watts running on 250 volts, a current of only about 400 mA (milliamperes) flows. From this one can get a rough idea as to what 20,000 Ampere means! Let us understand in another way what 20,000 Ampere means. When a current is flowing through a wire (or through the human body, for that matter), what is actually flowing through the wire (or the body) are tiny ball like structures known as electrons. These balls are too tiny to be seen with the naked eye or even with the strongest microscopes. More the number of electrons flowing through the wire, stronger the current. How tiny these electrons are, can be estimated from the fact that 6.25 quadrillion electrons (this number can be written by writing 625 and then adding 13 zeros after it!)must pass through a wire or through the body every second to set up a current of just 1 milliampere. Most people can voluntarily tolerate a current of only up to 30 mA applied to the hand, which results in painful muscle contractions. To put it another way, people can tolerate a flow of about 1.9x1017 electrons through their bodies, every second. However a current of 20,000 Amperes means a flow of almost 1.25x1023 electrons through the body every second, which is equal to 125 thousand million million million electrons! Voltage is like the "pressure" of electricity. This pressure is measured in units called volts. Just as more water pressure causes more water to come in our water taps, more electrical pressure( i.e. greater voltage) causes more electricity to flow through a medium (a human body in case of lightning). We can get some idea of the tremendous amount of voltage of lightning by the fact that the domestic supply in India is 240 volts, which is quite fatal. So in fact the voltage of lightning is almost 4,000,000 times stronger than the voltage supplied in homes! Although currents of such massive voltage and amperage are involved in lightning, yet surprisingly lightning is not always fatal. It has been estimated that less than half of the individuals struck by lightning are actually killed. There could be two reasons for this. First is that the current of lightning is direct in nature, which is less dangerous. The current is of two types-direct or alternating (we know it as D.C. and A.c.). Alternating current, which is supplied in our homes, is more dangerous to life than direct current. The second reason for lightning being relatively less damaging is the fact that it lasts for a very small duration (just about 1/1000th of a second). It is well known that if a small amount of current passes through the body for a longer period, the net damage to the body may be more than when a large current passes through the body for a much smaller period. Thus it is wrong to believe that a large current is necessarily fatal. One can escape the ill effects of a large current if the exposure to the current is for a very small period. This is exactly what happens in lightning. When death does occur in lightning, it is as a result of passage of electric current through either the heart or the brain. External burns may be very minor. Some scalp hair may be found singed. However, if there are any metallic objects in the possession of the victim, arcing may occur, as the bolt strikes the metallic object (Arcing is the jumping of spark between two charged objects). This arcing may lead to the development of tremendous amounts of local heat, which may cause the metallic objects to melt and get distorted in shape. Similarly synthetic fabrics, such as nylon shirts, pants or even socks may melt. In my professional life, I have seen objects like pen-knives, buckles, ear rings, car keys, getting distorted in deaths from lightning. Similarly passage of electric current, through objects made of iron can magnetize them. The heat produced may be so much that it may cause burns. These burns are usually referred to "lightning marks" Adjacent to a lightning bolt, there may be extreme pressure changes. This may rip open the seams of shirts, pants and even shoes worn by the victim ( Please reproduce fig on page 374 here :Source "Previous book"). I have seen many police officers mistaking this finding as an indication of foul play. A false interpretation of this finding may lead to prosecution of an innocent person. One of the most characteristic findings in a lightning death is the finding of a tree like pattern on the body (Please reproduce fig on page 375 here :Source "Previous book"). This pattern is usually seen over the shoulders or the flanks. Sometimes it is seen on the front of chest also (Please reproduce fig 17.15 on page 669 here :Source "Current Book by Tedeschi"). This mark is due to break down of red blood cells within the capillaries of the skin. The red coloured pigment haemoglobin escapes in the surrounding tissues and stains them, in the pattern of a tree. In every case of death due to lightning, I carefully search for this mark. In the case of Chaman Lal this mark was present over both shoulders. Another effect associated with lightning strike (especially in those who survive), is the development of intense swelling of the skin at points of current entry. This is due to the paralysis of local capillaries and lymph vessels as a result of electric injury. The resulting dilatation of the blood vessels allows fluid to escape and cause swelling. Now you can perhaps realize how I could say with dead certainty that Chaman Lal had died as a result of lightning. The finding of distorted metal objects and the magnetization of his pen knife led me to his cause of death. He had suffered head injuries probably as a result of fall subsequent to lightning strike. Finally I specifically searched for the tree like mark on the body of Chaman Lal. As already explained, I found this mark over both his shoulders. This virtually confirmed in my mind that Chaman Lal had actually died of lightning. I told about my findings to the police. They agreed to my findings and dropped the case against Vasudev. This was yet another victory of forensic medicine. (To protect the identity of individuals, the names of persons and places, and the dates have been changed)

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-29 AN UNUSUAL CASE OF SKULL FRACTURE I had a tremendous response for my article on "Forgery of cheques" published in the July 1995 issue of Crime & Detective. One of the best letters was received from Mr. Sanjay Gupta of Florida. He tells me that he is studying air conditioning in Gainsville University, but he is deeply interested in crime and crime related stories. He has liked "Crime & Detective" so much that he has asked one of his friends in New Delhi to keep sending him issues of this magazine regularly. He has also in his possession several crime books. He tells me that decipherment of erasures is possible depending upon the thoroughness of the erasure. No technique will decipher a complete erasure. He has appreciated the way, I solved Mange Ram and Ramesh Chand's case. However he gives us some additional techniques for deciphering partial erasures. Partial erasures can be deciphered using low magnification. Other techniques available to enhance images are (1) examination through coloured filters to enhance contrast, (2) high contrast photography (3) infrared examination. For the benefit of our readers, I may tell that infrared (IR) is just a kind of special kind of light which can not be seen by human eyes. Carbon particles are very opaque to IR light. This means that if carbon particles are present in an ink (as they are in many inks), this technique will enhance the image. He also tells me that erased iron-based fluid inks can be restored by fuming the document with sulfo-cyanic acid which reacts with the iron in the paper to produce a red colour. All readers may not be familiar with the kinds of inks that are available in the market. For them the term "iron-based fluid inks" may be incomprehensible. Well, there are two basic types of fountain pen inks. The iron-gallotannate type was used as early as the eighth century and with substantial improvement is still in use today. Iron salts are combined with gallotannic acid in an aqueous solution. This solution when applied to paper is first colourless but darkens quickly when oxidized by air. Modern inks of this type contain a synthetic blue dye to provide an immediate blue colour to the ink which turns black after oxidation on paper. This explains the origin of the name blue-black fountain pen ink. Blue-black inks are very stable. The ink is insoluble in water and cannot be erased effectively by abrasion. The other type of fountain pen ink consists of an aqueous solution of synthetic dyes. These inks have a bright colour but are not as stable as the blue-black inks. When we talk of iron-based inks, we are actually talking about the iron-gallotannate type of inks. What Mr. Sanjay Gupta tells me is this. Had I fumed the forged check (submitted to the bank by Mange Lal), with sulfo-cyanic acid, I could have got a red colour in place of the words "ve", which were supposed to have been deleted by Mange Lal. Well! well!! I am thoroughly impressed at the depth of technicality our readers are going into. I have since checked up with certain research papers related to forgery of cheques, and have found Sanjay's method perfectly in order. Well Sanjay, thanks for giving us such valuable information. I will certainly keep this thing in my mind for future. Meanwhile I will request our readers to keep sending similar stories, news clippings or other material of interest to me for inclusion in our forthcoming issues. This time I am going to tell you about an unusual case which I solved in 1993. On 23 August 1993, the police found the dead body of an unknown male on the outskirts of Delhi, in a deserted area. From the external appearances, the man appeared to be around 45 years of age. The head of the dead body was badly mutilated and crushed. The skull bones were lying scattered on the ground. The brain matter was completely pulped and was flowing out of the open skull cavity. The mouth was gagged with a cloth, which was later identified as the victim's own handkerchief. Some blood was found around the head of the victim. From first appearances it appeared to be a case of death by blunt force impact. It appeared as if someone had killed him by hitting his head with an iron rod or lathi. The photographs of the victim were published in all the leading dailies. An effort was also made to establish the identity of the victim, by tallying the records of missing persons maintained with the Missing Persons Bureau. Soon a lady by the name of Champa identified the photograph as that of her husband Mewa Lal. He had been missing from the house since 21 August. On that day, Champa along with her two young children had gone to her parent's house for some family wedding. Mewa Lal was to join the family the next day. But he did not turn up. Champa thought that he must have got busy in some work, so she attended the wedding on 22nd. However since she was anxious about her husband, she cut short her stay and returned before schedule in the early morning of 23rd. On coming back home, she found that the front door was ajar, and nobody was inside. She enquired about him in the neighborhood, and from the relatives, but no one could tell anything about Mewa Lal. Mewa Lal was a man of doubtful character. Women were his weakness. He would often flirt with women, spending lavish money on them. In his quest for women, he wouldn't spare even married females. He was lately running an affair with Jaya, a 35 year married female. Jaya hailed from a lower middle class family and was exceptionally beautiful. Her husband Chandran was not earning well, and Jaya always felt the pinch. She would often curse her luck that she had got married to Chandran, who could not even arrange for a day's square meal. Needless to say when Mewa Lal tried to become intimate with her she gladly submitted herself to him. Mewa Lal would give her new Saris, bangles, sandals and other cosmetic items off and on. At times he would even give her cash to meet her day-to-day needs. Jaya did not need anything more than this. So she had surrendered herself completely to Mewa Lal. Mewa Lal was not particularly a rich person. He had no fixed job. He did sundry jobs on a commission basis. This made his earnings very erratic. Sometimes the cash flow would be very good, while at other times, it would be almost nil. His wife Champa was always in financial trouble. She knew that her husband was a flirt, and she also knew that he was lately running an affair with Jaya, but she was helpless. Ever since her marriage, she was telling him by various means, not to engage himself in such activities, but he wouldn't listen. His affairs with Champa had increased his expenses a great deal. According to some estimates of neighbors, he was spending almost Rs. 2,000 on her every month. This was a huge amount for Mewa Lal, who was not earning much. To meet his expenses, he took a loan of Rs. 10,000 (in October 1992) from Kaushik, an affluent person of the town. Kaushik knew Mewa Lal well. In the past he(Mewa Lal) had done some odd jobs for Kaushik. It was agreed that Mewa Lal would return the money to Kaushik within 3 months, with 16% interest. Of course Mewa Lal had no means to return the money to Kaushik, but he did not disclose this fact to him. In Jan 1993, as promised, Kaushik went to Mewa Lal to get his money back along with interest. Mewa Lal didn't even have a single paisa to give him. This generated some tension between the two. However Mewa Lal sent Kaushik back saying that he would soon arrange for money, and settle his account. These were empty promises however. In June 1993, Kaushik had become so frustrated that he had decided to take the help of some muscle power to extract money from him. When police asked Jaya about the murder, some more interesting facts came to light. Jaya told the police that Chandran, her husband left for work on the morning of 21st August. Soon afterwards Mewa Lal came to her house. He was slightly drunk. He told Jaya that his wife had left for her parents' house to attend a marriage and they could have some uninterrupted fun then. Since Chandran was also not at home, they indulged in sexual intercourse as usual. The whole day they spent like that. In the evening Chandran came back early quite unexpectedly. This caught both of them by surprise. Although, Jaya was able to slip Mewa Lal out of the house through the back door, his undergarments were inadvertently left on the cot itself. Chandran's anger knew no bounds, when he saw Mewa Lal's undergarments on his wife's cot. He immediately took his Lathi and left for Mewa Lal's house. Jaya said that he was murmuring very angrily to himself. She couldn't understand much, but he was muttering something to the effect that he would settle the matter once and for all. Her neighbors also confirmed this statement who saw Chandran rushing angrily towards Mewa Lal's house. Jaya told the police further, that Chandran had returned home after about 20-25 minutes only. From his looks, it appeared as if he was very much satisfied. This was the backdrop of the story, against which we had to see the death of Mewa Lal. The police story was that Chandran had killed Mewa Lal with his Lathi, and had returned back satisfied. All the available facts pointed to this only. He had left his house with his Lathi in anger, and had returned back quite satisfied. He was muttering that he would kill Mewa Lal. He (Mewa Lal) had ravaged his wife, so his anger was understandable. But when Chandran was apprehended, he vehemently denied his involvement in murder. It was at this stage that the police contacted me and requested me to help them with the case. A quick look at Mewa Lal's face showed that his face had indeed been battered very badly( Please reproduce top figure on page 594 here-Designate this as Fig 1 ). Many of the pieces of the skull bones were missing. I asked the police where the other missing pieces of bones were. I was told that they had collected everything they found on the scene, and had submitted them to me. I knew that the police had missed several bone pieces. I requested them to take me to the place where the body was lying. At that place also, I couldn't find anything of importance. But sure enough, some of the skull pieces were missing. I knew this because, I couldn't reconstruct the whole skull cap from the pieces of bone available with me. The remaining pieces of bone just couldn't vanish in thin air. Finally I demanded to be taken to Mewa Lal's house. I made a thorough search there. Sure enough I found three skull cap pieces there. They fitted the missing portion of the skull quite neatly. This meant that the killing had been done at Mewa Lal's house itself and the body was later dumped at the place where it was found ultimately. This was the first great advantage of a thorough autopsy. Had the autopsy been done less thoroughly, i.e. if I had not taken the trouble to try to reconstruct the skull, (which was not very necessary too) everybody would have thought that Mewa Lal had been killed in the deserted area itself. 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 ( Please reproduce the bottom figure on page 594 here - designate this as Fig 2) . 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. T he 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 ( Please reproduce fig on page 595 here - Designate it as fig 3). 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. The story was beginning to become clearer to us now. The only other enemy of Mewa Lal was Kaushik. He had to recover his money from him. Till now, he was not under suspicion at all. But now the police decided to question him too. He seemed nervous from the very start. The police got suspicious and decided to interrogate him in more detail. He was told that Mewa Lal had been killed by a gun, and the police had come to know about it. Kaushik had a licensed revolver. We recovered that revolver. Test fires from that revolver showed that the bullet which was recovered from Mewa Lal's house had indeed been shot from that revolver only. Now Kaushik broke down, and he narrated the whole story to the police. He had gone to Mewa Lal's house on the night of 21 August to recover his money. Mewa Lal once again asked for some more time. This led them to a quarrel. In a sharp fit of anger, Kaushik drew his revolver and shot at Mewa Lal. This killed Mewa Lal instantly. Kaushik had never intended to kill Mewa Lal, but now he had to do something fast. He dumped the body to the outskirts of the city in his jeep. Later, when he heard that the police suspicion had fallen on Chandran, he was too happy. As for Chandran, while he was rushing to Mewa Lal's house in anger, he met one of his friends Raju, who asked what the matter was. When he narrated the whole story to his friend, he discouraged Chandran to resort to violence. He convinced Chandran that he should talk to Jaya with love, and she should understand. Any way Raju was somehow able to convince Chandran, that violence does not solve anything. This seemed to satisfy Chandran somewhat, and he returned home, apparently in peace. Had he gone to Mewa Lal's house, perhaps he would have caught Kaushik stashing away Mewa Lal's body in his jeep. The court admitted my scientific evidence, and convicted Kaushik to life imprisonment. Thus a thorough autopsy helped nab the correct criminal. What on the face of it seemed to be the handiwork of Chandran, turned out to be the deed of Kaushik. This was yet another victory of Forensic Medicine. (To protect the identity of individuals, the names of persons and places, and the dates have been changed)

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-28 DROWNING DEATHS Rama and Suresh, a young courting couple, were doing pleasure boating in the famous Badkhal Lake of Faridabad district on 6th Feb 1992. The time was around 4 pm. Fishing is not allowed there, but Suresh had surreptitiously brought a fishing rod with him, and when the boat was quite far away from everyone's gaze, he threw the line in the water. Little did he realize that he would come up against a most horrific and revolting catch. After some time he felt as if the line had got hooked to a great resistance. Anticipating a rich catch he tried to pull the line, but the line would not budge. However when both Rama and Suresh pulled the line, they were able to drag their `catch' up. The catch however caused Rama to faint immediately. It was not a super sized fish, as both of them had been contemplating. Surprise of all surprises: at the end of the line was dangling the decomposed body of a young woman! A preliminary investigation revealed that the body was of a woman named Gulabo, who was a resident of Hissar. She was married to a 35 year old man Birju, who was a farmer. They had been married for almost 10 years, and had a happy married life, but lately there had been some tension in the house. On a couple of occasions Birju had even beaten Gulabo in a fit of anger. Gulabo had threatened many times to commit suicide, if he did not stop suspecting her. On 3rd of Feb they had come to Faridabad to visit a relative. Their intention was to stay there for a day. Next day Birju returned to his native place, but Gulabo was not there with him. When the relatives and neighbors asked about her, he casually replied that she had run away with her paramour. He did not bother to report to the police even. This was the story that was given to me when the body was brought to me for post mortem. The primary question of course was to find out if Gulabo had really died of drowning. Many readers may tend to believe that it is a superfluous question, as the mere finding of the dead body in the lake is sufficient to prove drowning. However this is not so. In our country it is usual for a murderer to first kill his victim and then throw the dead body in the water in the hope that the death would be passed off as a case of drowning. In all cases of apparent drowning, the three most frequently asked questions are (i) whether the death was indeed caused by drowning? (ii) Whether the drowning was suicidal, homicidal, or accidental in nature, and (iii) What was the length of time for which the body was lying in the water? The order of these questions roughly reflects their importance as well. The first question is a very vital question. If the person was first killed by someone and then thrown in water, the cause of death will obviously not be drowning. Autopsy findings are very helpful in resolving this question. If a person was alive when he entered water, water would enter the air passages along with the inspired air. Within the air passages, this water gets mixed with the various sticky secretions present there. As the air gets in and out of the windpipe along with the respiratory efforts, this water gets churned in the windpipe, along with the sticky secretions. These secretions decrease the surface tension of water, much like soap, with the result that a lot of foam is generated. This foam is found at the mouth in almost all cases of true drowning (please reproduce fig. 16.10 on page 368 here). When we see this type of foam at the mouth of a dead person, the first presumption is that the death could be due to drowning. However if certain precautions are not observed, this test can cause one to arrive at wrong conclusions. For one thing, drowning is not the only cause of appearance of foam at the mouth. Foam is also seen in certain cases of death due to electrocution, epilepsy and in certain poisonings such as morphine, cocaine, barbiturates and organophosphorus poisoning. It is also seen in certain natural diseases, where due to certain abnormality of function, the lungs get loaded with water, a condition technically known as oedema of the lungs. One of these natural diseases is heart failure. In this condition, oedema of the lungs is very commonly seen, and this causes the froth to appear at the mouth (Please reproduce fig. 16.9 on page 368 here). Such a situation can easily cause confusion. However in all such cases the foam is not so fine as in cases of drowning. There is one more important difference. If the foam is cleared from the mouth, and then the chest is pressed, the foam reappears at the mouth only in cases of true drowning. In other cases the foam does not reappear at the mouth. The reason is that in cases of drowning, the whole respiratory passage is filled with foam, which results from the massive churning that goes on during the process of drowning. When advanced putrefaction occurs, such as when the body was recovered from the water after a large gap of time, the foam is no more seen at the mouth, even in cases of true drowning. In such cases a very interesting test is conducted, which often tells correctly whether the death occurred due to drowning or not. This test depends upon the presence of certain microscopic unicellular plants in all bodies of water, known as diatoms. Diatoms belong to the class of plants known as Diatomaceae and consist of a box or `frustule' composed of two valves which fit together to enclose the cytoplasmic contents. Diatoms are so minute that they are visible under the microscope only. Under the microscope they appear as bright silvery symmetrical shaped bodies (Please reproduce fig. 16.14 on page 373 here). The valves are highly complex in shape and are extremely resistant to decay. The principle involved in the diatom test is simple. If the person was alive at the time of entry in the water, he must be respiring. This will cause millions of diatoms to enter his lungs along with water. To be sure, they will also enter the lungs of an already dead person by sheer mechanical pressure of water. But if the person was respiring, the force of inspiration may rupture some capillaries and some diatoms may gain entry in the blood stream. In an alive person, the beating heart would then pump these diatoms to far away places such as liver, brain, bone marrow, or kidney (Please reproduce fig.16.13 on page 372 here). If a dead person was thrown in water, diatoms can go only upto the level of lungs but no further, for obvious reasons. So one of the reasonable things to do would be to test microscopically for diatoms in such organs. If the diatoms are seen, the death is presumed to be due to drowning. Another important sign which tells us that the death occurred indeed due to drowning, is the presence of what we call cadaveric spasm (Please reproduce fig. 2.6 on page 57 here). It is the persistence after death of the last action of the deceased. It generally occurs when the deceased was quite agitated during the last moments of his life. For instance, if the deceased was struggling with the killer just before death, and he pulled, say, some hair of the assailant, the hair would remain gripped in his fist. The last action of the deceased in this case was the clenching of the fist, and this action is preserved, as the muscles of the hand go in cadaveric spasm. In cases of drowning, the deceased makes frantic efforts to save himself, and tries to hold on to whatever is available, such as the proverbial weed, or even gravel. The presence of weeds in the hand tells positively that the person was alive when he entered water. The question whether the drowning was suicidal, homicidal or accidental in nature is not always easy to answer. Much depends of the evaluation of circumstances. In India, drowning is a fairly common mode of committing suicide. Homicidal drowning is a rare entity, except in cases of infants and children. Abducted children are sometimes stripped of their ornaments and other costly possessions and then thrown in water. It is generally difficult to do the same with an adult, until and unless he is attacked unawares or was first stupefied by administering some narcotic drug. One feature which helps us to determine whether the drowning was suicidal or homicidal is to note whether the legs were tied or not (Please reproduce fig. 16.6 on page 364 here). If the legs are tied, generally the presumption is that the person was killed by drowning, or in other words, we can take drowning to be a homicidal one. However cases are not unknown when expert swimmers tied their own legs, before committing suicide by drowning to avoid instinctive self preservation by trying to swim out. Sometimes injuries may be found on hands or legs (Please reproduce fig. 16.7 on page 365 here). An inexperienced swimmer would tend to believe that such cases are homicidal in nature. It is quite logical to conclude that the injuries were as a result of beating before death. However many of these injuries may be post mortem in nature, i.e. produced after death, by marine animals or by post mortem dragging of the body along the river bed by the currents of water. Estimation of the duration of immersion is a problem which is answered relatively easily. If there is no wrinkling of the finger pads, the duration is less than few hours. Wrinkled fingers a condition also known by the catchy term washerwoman's hands (please reproduce fig. 16.3 on page 362 here) indicate a duration of about half a day. Wrinkled palms and feet suggest a duration of two and three days respectively. After about a week or more of submersion, the skin of the hands and feet comes off rather like a glove. This is known technically as degloving (Please reproduce fig 16.2 on page 362 here). In the case of Gulabo I had to conduct the diatom test. Diatoms were present in the bone marrow, so I was almost sure that Gulabo was alive when she entered water. The feet had wrinkled appearance, but there was no degloving, so I guessed that she must be lying in water for a period of about 3 days. The body was recovered on 6th Feb. so I put the tentative date of drowning at 3rd Feb. This fit in with the statement of Birju too. There was no particular finding in favour of homicidal drowning, such as the presence of a narcotic drug in the stomach, the tying of the feet, or the presence of a disabling wound on the head. Gulabo was a woman of sturdy built, so it was rather difficult for someone to push her over. Most probably Gulabo and Birju had had some fight on 3rd Feb. Tired of the repeated fights, Gulabo had committed suicide by drowning. Birju did not know this, but since he cared two hoots for his wife,he returned in anger, genuinely thinking that she had eloped with her lover. He was perhaps guilty of causing mental harassment to Gulabo, but he was certainly not guilty of murder, and forensic science ensured justice to him.