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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.

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-27 DEATHS FROM HANGIING The dead body of 67 year old MangeRam was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his room by means of his loin cloth on 23.4.1991. He was deeply in debt, and from the reports of his neighbors and friends it appeared that he was lately in great mental agony. He went to bed as usual on the night of 22nd April at about 9.00 PM. On the next day at 6.00 AM, when his daughter-in-law, knocked at the door, to wake him up and give his morning cup of tea, there was no response from the inside. Soon the neighbors gathered. At about 8.00 AM on 23rd April, the police was summoned. When the door was forced open by the police, the body of MangeRam was found hanging as described. From all accounts, it appeared to be a clear cut case of suicidal hanging. But one small point caught the fancy of the police. The window was found open. Was it possible for someone to enter the room through the window at night, kill MangeRam by some other means such as by throttling ( putting pressure on the neck by hands), hang his body from the ceiling fan, and then leave the scene through the window? This possibility was perhaps far-fetched, but in view of the facts that MangeRam lived on the ground floor, and that he had generated many enemies by not repaying debts of several people, such a possibility could not be ruled out easily. Moreover it was also necessary to tell when exactly MangeRam had died, if only to satisfy the curiosity of his relatives. He had certainly died sometime between 9.00 PM on the 22nd and 6.00 AM on the 23rd, but nobody knew the exact time. When the police handed me the body of MangeRam, I was asked to tell precisely these two points- Did MangeRam really die of hanging, and when had he died? Of course if I could tell any other additional information, the police would love it. Hanging does leave its tell-tale signs on the dead body of the deceased. What the forensic expert does is to look for those points and then opine whether the person really died of hanging or not. It is necessary to delve briefly into the mechanism of hanging before we could properly appreciate the tell-tale signs of hanging. Hanging is a mode of death in which a ligature is wound round the neck and the noose is then tightened, the constricting force being the weight of the body. This is an important fact to appreciate. In strangulation too, a ligature is wound round the neck, but the constricting force is not the weight of the body. in these cases, the noose is usually tightened by hands. Strangulation is usually employed by criminals to do away with their victims. While hanging is generally suicidal in nature, strangulation is usually homicidal, but cases in reverse are not unknown. Rarely but quite definitely, cases of suicidal strangulation and homicidal hangings are encountered. It is reasonable for many people to assume that the cause of death in hanging is asphyxia ( exclusion of air from the lungs ). The noose is there on the neck, and through the neck pass the air passages, so this is a very reasonable assumption to be made. However only in a minority of cases of hanging does asphyxia really cause death. In a majority of cases the death is due to sudden stoppage of heart! In such cases the face of the victim appears very pale. Why should the heart stop in a case of hanging? Actually there are certain sensitive structures sitting at the carotid arteries ( the two arteries going up by the side of the neck, taking blood to the brain ). These are called Carotid bodies. They are sensitive to pressure. Whenever they `sense' pressure, they cause heart to slow down. Nature `invented' these structures in a remarkable flash of ingenuity. If for some reason, the blood pressure of a person were to rise ( as in disease ), Carotid bodies would sense the increased pressure and slow down the heart. Slowing down the heart would reduce the blood pressure and tend to bring it back to normal. When the blood pressure is restored to normal, the Carotid bodies cease to get activated and the heart beat returns to normal. The sensitivity of Carotid bodies differs in different people. In some people, especially women, the Carotid bodies are so sensitive to pressure that a mere touch on the neck would cause the heart to slow down or even stop. In fact, cases are on record, when the woman partner in a dancing sequence, suddenly dropped dead because the male partner had put his hand amorously around her neck! Hanging puts tremendous pressure around the neck. This causes the Carotid bodies to interpret ( although falsely ) that there was an abnormal rise in blood pressure. The pressure is in fact so great that the heart is not only slowed down, it is actually stopped. Thus the wisdom of the body turns into a folly! How do we know that the person did not die of shortness of breath, but of stoppage of heart? The tell-tale signs on the body of the deceased lead us to that. In cases of heart attack ( and any other cases of stoppage of heart), the face is usually pale, because the heart fails to supply blood properly to the various regions of the body (reproduce fig. 15.23 on page 352 here ). If the person were to die of asphyxia, the face would be congested i.e. the vessels in the region of the face would be full of blood. Because there is shortage of oxygen in the blood, the body compensates for it by sending more blood to all organs, and this accounts for the congestion of face. In cases of hanging quite a number of cases are seen where the face is pale, which tells us that the major cause of death in hanging is not asphyxia, but stoppage of heart. Nevertheless asphyxia does occur in a small number of cases of hanging, because we do see congested faces in a small number of cases of hanging ( Reproduce fig. 15.26 on page 353 here). When it does occur, it may be thought that hanging obstructs the air passages at the level of the wind-pipe. This is certainly the level at which the ligature is found tightened. But this is not so. In fact the obstruction occurs at a much higher level- at the level of the tongue. The pressure of the rope in fact lifts up the base of the tongue against the soft palate. This causes the air-passages to get blocked at the level of the tongue itself. A peculiar and somewhat misunderstood form of hanging is Judicial hanging. This is the form of hanging employed by the jail officials to impart the Capital sentence to a criminal. It is generally thought that the mechanism of judicial hanging is the same as seen in suicidal hanging. This is not so. In suicidal hanging, as we have seen, the death is either due to stoppage of heart or due to lack of oxygen. Neither of these two mechanisms operates in the case of Judicial hanging. In Judicial hanging, the noose is wound round the neck in such a way, that the knot is either at the angle of the jaw or beneath the chin. Then the victim is made to fall through a trap door. The drop is usually about 8 to 10 feet, but this may be less or more depending on the weight of the victim. A lesser weight would call for a longer drop and vice-versa. The long drop and the peculiar position of the noose, breaks the joints of the neck and in the process the spinal cord in the region of the neck is crushed. Thus the victim meets an instantaneous death. In cases of hanging a very peculiar thing that is seen is the ligature mark. This is a deep impression, made by the ligature material (such as the rope or the loin cloth with which the victim hangs himself ) and is seen on the neck ( Reproduce fig. 15.27 on page 354 here). This mark tells many important things to the forensic pathologist. Among other things, this mark tells the position of the victim at the time of fixing the noose ( Reproduce fig. 15.29 on page 355 here). Another important feature of the ligature mark of hanging is that it is not found completely around the neck. There is a little gap in the ligature mark at the suspension point ( reproduce fig. 15.24 on page 352 here ) . This is in sharp contrast with the ligature mark of strangulation which is seen all round the neck. This is one of the several ways in which we can make out whether the death was due to hanging or strangulation. The ligature mark around MangeRam's neck was quite pronounced, which told me that he had indeed died as a result of hanging. This ruled out any foul play. His face was pale, which told me that his heart had stopped as a result of pressure on the neck. A look at the post-mortem staining on the legs told me that he had been dead for about 10 hours (Reproduce fig. 2.4 on page 52 here) . Post-mortem staining is a bluish coloration, which develops as a result of blood gravitating down to the most dependent parts of the body. When I pressed the areas on the legs showing post-mortem staining, I could not blanch the staining, meaning thereby that the post-mortem staining had become `fixed'. This told me that MangeRam had died about 10 hours previously. Since I had conducted the post-mortem at about 10.00 A.M. I could say with reasonable certainty, that MangeRam had died around midnight. On the basis of the post-mortem report, the police closed the investigation and the creditors of MangeRam escaped unnecessary harassment.

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-26 FORGERY OF CHEQUES I had a tremendous response for my article about car headlights, published in the April, 1995 issue of Crime & Detective. One Marianus Bilung writes from Haflong, N.C.Hills, Assam," Your forensic investigation articles regarding solving of various murder cases are superb. I liked the article on car headlights. However your article presumes that in every accident, car headlights must be broken. If in an accident, the car headlights remain intact, how could you say that at the time of the accident, the headlights were on or not?" An interesting question indeed. In a severe accident generally the headlights are broken. However I do not know how to solve this question if the headlights remain intact. The principle behind solving such questions, is that a hot tungsten wire (used as a filament in car headlights must undergo some chemical changes if it is hot and exposed to air. It will get exposed to air when the headlights crash. If they do not crash, the filament will not come in contact with air, and it should really be very difficult to say whether the headlights were on or not. Perhaps some reader can give a good answer to this. I feel that an examination of the switches inside the car might be of some help. If the switches were off, one could say that the headlights were off. However I will be very interested to have more solutions from readers. Thanks. Many youngsters are so influenced by these articles that they want to take up a course in forensic sciences. I have received requests from several youngsters wanting to know the name of the universities where they can study this course. Athreya Arvind writes from 4th Block Jayanagar, Bangalore,"I am a student of arts. To take up a course in forensic science, is it necessary to be a science student?" DineshChandra Haobijam writes from Nongthymmai, Shillong,"I am much influenced by your articles on crime and detection. How can I take up a course in forensic science? Being a student from the North-East, I have nowhere to collect information from. Please guide me." Quite surprisingly, I am getting letters even from young girls who want to take up a career in forensic science. Young Aditi from Tilak Nagar, Jaipur wants to know the same thing which our other two friends want. Well, first of all let me thank all of you youngsters who are showing so much interest in my articles. I am sure one day you could all become good forensic scientists. I am sorry Athreya, but I am afraid if you have to take up a course in forensic sciences, you must be a science student. Many universities in India offer M.Sc. courses in Forensic Sciences. The ones I am aware of are (i) Punjabi University, Patiala (ii) Sagar University, Madhya Pradesh and (iii) Tamil Nadu University. If someone is aware of other universities offering courses in forensic sciences, please let me know for the benefit of all. To be eligible for these courses, you should have a bachelor's degree (B.Sc.), preferably with a first division in physics, chemistry, zoology or botany. You must write to the academic registrar of these universities to find out the details regarding the admission requirements. Once you have done the M.Sc. successfully, you can even go for a Ph.D. in Forensic Sciences. In your M.Sc. course you can choose a field of specialization such as forensic ballistics ( the science of guns, arms and ammunition), Forensic entomology (the science dealing with how insects can help in crime detection), or forensic botany (the science dealing with the application of botanical knowledge for the detection of crime) etc. Once you have done this course, the job opportunities are very good. The work is glamorous and satisfying and the salary is handsome. Alternatively you may become a forensic pathologist. This is what I am working as. These people apply medical knowledge for the detection of crime. The range of work of these people is very wide. I personally feel that it is the most glamorous branch of forensic science. Perhaps this is because I am myself working in this field. These people perform post-mortem examinations and solve crime. The nature of their work is such that they deal with the detection of murders very closely. We also have to attend courts of law very frequently as medical witnesses. You must have seen in movies and serials quite frequently that a doctor is called to opine as to how a particular person was killed, who killed him, when was he killed, and so on. These are the forensic pathologists. To become a forensic pathologist, you will have to get admission in M.B.B.S. first. After passing this examination you must take up an M.D. degree in Forensic Medicine. Most medical colleges in India offer this course. But the most glamorous are the ones offered by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and the Maulana Azad Medical College. Those students who can afford, can go to foreign universities to take up a course in forensic medicine. British Universities offer a one year course in forensic medicine. It is called "Diploma in Medical Jurisprudence" (D.M.J.). One must preferably go to Scotland to take up this course. Traditionally Scotland has been known as the "Home of Forensic Medicine". I was lucky enough to be attached to this university for more than a year. Those desirous of a more detailed knowledge must get in touch with:- Prof Anthony Busuttil Regius Professor of Forensic Medicine, Forensic Medicine Unit, Department of Pathology, University Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9AG SCOTLAND, UK I hope this satisfies the curiosity of most youngsters. If there are any further questions, I shall be most happy to answer them. This time I am going to tell you about a very interesting case which I solved last year. A cheque was brought to me, which was supposed to have been forged. I was to tell the police whether the cheque had really been forged or not. Well, the whole story was like this. A 37 year old man Ramesh Chand had got some house repairing work done from a contractor Mange Lal. At the end of the work, the payment due to Mange Lal was Rs. 5,000. Ramesh Chand made out a cheque of the Vaish Co-Operative New Bank Ltd, DaryaGanj, for Rs. 5,000 to Mange Lal. However when Mange Lal got this check, he played a little trick. He added a zero in front of the figure 5,000. Thus the check became for Rs. 50,000. However in all cheques there is a place where the amount has to be written in words too. This provision is made only to ensure that such frauds do not occur frequently. For instance making 50,000 from 5,000 is quite easy. One has to just add a zero in front of 5,000. But to change the words "five thousand" to "fifty thousand" is somewhat more difficult. However Mange Lal seemed quite expert in these matters. He deleted the letters "ve" from the word "five", and instead added the letters "fty". Thus the letter "five" became "fifty". Then he went to the bank and encashed the cheque. The cashier took extra care to examine the authenticity of the check, since the check was for a very big amount. He counterchecked the signatures of Ramesh Chand kept in the bank's records. Since Mange Lal had not interfered with the signatures at all, the signatures tallied. Finding the cheque okay, the cashier consulted the Bank Manager and then encashed the cheque. About a week later when Ramesh Chand went to get his pass book completed, he came to know that he had been duped by Mange Lal. He immediately complained to the Bank Manager about it. The police was called and Mange Lal was apprehended in no time. Quite surprisingly did not seem perturbed. He quite coolly maintained that he had committed no fraud. He indeed had to recover a sum of 50,000 from Ramesh Chand. He (Ramesh Chand) had made out the cheque himself, because he had genuinely to pay Mange Lal that amount. Seeing the confidence of Mange Lal, I was quite sure that only two possibilities existed now. Either Ramesh Chand indeed owed that much money to Mange Lal. Or else, Mange Lal was so confident of his forgery that he was sure nobody could pin him down. Ramesh Chand denied this statement of Mange Lal quite vehemently. He asserted that Mange Lal was duping everyone by speaking a blatant lie. The Bank manager was requested to take out the check from his record room, so that it could be examined. This was the only way to check who was speaking the truth. When the check was brought for the examination of all, it indeed showed the amount Rs.50,000 written over it both in figures and words. Tried hard as one could, no one could find any sign of addition or alteration in it. If at all Mange Lal had forged the cheque, he had done it very deftly. Finally the case was brought to me for opinion. So much for the case. When I examined the cheque, I found that it was indeed impossible to find any additions or alterations by naked eye examination. So indeed it appeared that Mange Lal was speaking the truth. But such cases can not and should not be dismissed so lightly. A detailed scientific examination is required before a final word could be said about such matters. Therefore a word may be said here about erasures before we proceed further. Documents are often made fraudulent by the erasure of important information on a document and the subsequent addition of new data or information. The documents which are frequently changed in this manner (for some or the other gain) are share deeds, inheritance wills, contracts, university degrees, letters offering jobs, passports, birth and marriage certificates, ration cards and of course cheques. It is not infrequent for a terrorist to steal a valid passport, erase the important personal information on it, add one's own particulars in it, and then use that forged passport to run away to other countries. Similarly wills may be changed to dupe someone of his rightful share. Erasures can be made in one of three ways. One way is the so-called chemical erasure. In this type of erasure, some chemical such as oxalic acid is used to remove the writing from the document. In fact, one can easily get "ink-removers" from the market, which contain some kind of chemical or bleaching agent to remove the stains. The second way is abrasive erasure. Erasure by common household rubber comes under this class. You must have noticed that ink stains can not be removed by rubber. Thus commonly ink stains are removed by chemical erasure. But even ink stains may be removed by abrasive method. For this one must buy a special rubber, which has sand grains in it. This rubber is commonly kept by the typists to remove typewritten matter. The sand grains rub the paper fibers very harshly and remove them from the paper, the ink stains coming out along with them. Even if you do not have this kind of rubber with you, you could still remove an ink stain by taking a blade, scalpel or a sharp knife and scratching the paper with the sharp tip. This is also a form of abrasive erasure. Abrasion types of erasures are the easiest to detect because abrasive method disturbs the fibers of the paper. As you must be knowing, paper is made from wood pulp, and is thus composed of fibers. These fibers may not be visible on naked eye examination, but they are very clearly seen on microscopic examination. If some written matter has been erased from the surface of the paper by abrasive means, the delicate arrangement of the fibers will be disturbed. This disturbed arrangement could very easily be seen through the microscope. In addition, the coating of the paper will also be disturbed. The third type of erasure are the lift off ribbon erasures. These are special kinds of erasures. This method is applied in modern electronic typewriters. This type can remove any type of written material from the paper. Basically it consists of applying a strip of adhesive tape over the written line, and then jerking the strip off the surface of the paper. The fibers of the paper along with anything written over them will adhere to the adhesive tape, and come off along with it. This method can be easily demonstrated at home. Take any written material, which you can not remove by any means. An old book or magazine will be ideal. It is almost impossible to erase the printed word by either chemical or abrasive means. Now take the normal adhesive tape, stick a small strip over a written line and then take it off the surface of the paper with a little jerk. You will find that the written line will be erased instantaneously. This type of erasures can usually be detected with the aid of oblique lighting to see the indentations. The most difficult erasure to detect is the carefully conducted chemical erasure of writing ink. Mange Lal was aware of this (He was perhaps reading too much of scientific crime literature!). So he had used some kind of bleaching agent to erase the writing. However every crime does leave its trace and can be detected by one or the other means. Even this technique disturbs the coating of the surface of the paper and an examination under a special kind of light will usually reveal stains of the removed ink. This light is known as the Ultraviolet light or simply as UV light. This light comes from the sun also but in very minute quantities. It can however be produced in the lab. If the document is examined under the UV light, it will reveal the erased writing ( Please reproduce fig 14.7 on page 699 here). You might be wondering as to how this is possible. Actually most inks shine brightly when exposed to UV light. This property is known as fluorescence. In other words we can say that inks fluoresce in UV light. Even when the ink is erased from the document (cheques, certificates etc.), the area where the ink was present retains the fluorescent properties of the ink. If such a document is exposed to UV light, we can see the erased writing, as shown in the diagram. When I examined the disputed cheque under UV light, I found to my surprize that the letters "ve" were shining in front of the letters "fi". Above the shining letters "ve" were written the words, "fty". This clearly showed that the letters "ve" had been deleted by Mange Ram, and the letters "fty" added afterwards. When Mange Ram was shown a photograph of this cheque taken under UV light, ( which clearly showed the letters "five thousand"), he collapsed and admitted his guilt. He said that he had wanted to make a quick buck, and that is why he had played this trick. The court admitted my scientific evidence, and Mange Ram was given a sentence of 2 years of rigorous imprisonment.

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-25 DEATH BY STRANGULATION I had a tremendous response for my article " Death by air injection" published in the March,1995 issue of Crime & Detective. Many readers have complained that their clippings, stories and ideas which they have sent to me with great hope have not found their way in my subsequent pieces. I would request all such readers to be patient with me. I am receiving such a heavy mail, that it is not possible for me to include all the letters. Nevertheless I shall try to include as many letters as possible. Needless to say, more useful contributions find their place earlier. One of the best responses that I got for my above named article was from Dr. Ritu Gupta from Nizamuddin, New Delhi. She has sent me a photocopy of page 153 from a book called "Murder What Dunit?" The book is written by JHH Gaute & Robin Odell. It describes a remarkable case in which a doctor killed his patient by air injection. It was a mercy killing. In December 1949, one Dr. Hermann Sander attended one of the patients, Mrs. Abbie Borroto, who was dying of cancer in a New Hampshire hospital. In the presence of a nurse he took a hypodermic syringe and injected 40 cc of air into a vein in the woman's arm. A death certificate was made out giving cancer of large intestine as the cause of death, and the body was duly buried. Some days after the funeral Dr. Sander completed the dead woman's medical record by making a detailed entry of her final treatment, including the injection of air. This virtual confession to mercy killing was spotted by a hospital records clerk who reported it. In due course the newspapers learned of the story, and a great controversy blew up, with the doctor being applauded for an act of mercy killing. Dr. Sander, having refused to reconsider the statement made on his patient's record, was brought to trial in what became known world-wide as `The Mercy Killing Trial'. Thankfully enough, the doctor was found not guilty. A remarkable story indeed on death by air injection. I had thought that killings by air injections could be done only by criminals with criminal intentions. But here is a remarkable case in which a doctor having an exalted place in society killed his patient with air injection. It was done with good intention however. The doctor couldn't see the pain of the patient. He could neither cure her disease, nor lessen her pain. So he deemed it fit to end her life. However whether he did it right or not remains a controversial topic. Readers may send their views on this. Thank you Ritu, for sending us such a nice story related to death by air injection. Readers may keep sending similar stories, newsclippings or other material of interest to me for inclusion in our forthcoming issues. This time I am going to tell you about a very interesting case which I solved in November 1993. On 16th November, 1993, I was called by the police to a house in Vasant Vihar, where they had found the dead body of an 18 year old girl Rajni. Rajni was a student of B.Com. in Delhi University. Her parents were simple middle class people. She had a younger brother, a 15 year old boy called Raju. Rajni was in love with a boy Pramod, who was her colleague in the college. Everybody knew about their love-affair. Her parents were however very much against this love-affair, and had advised their daughter to terminate this affair but she would not listen. Pramod came from a good family, but his company was not good. There were rumors in the campus, that they even had sexual relations. However Rajni had confided everything to Sarita, her best friend. During the police investigations later on, Sarita told the police that Rajni had no sexual relations with Pramod. However only a few days back Rajni had told her that lately Pramod was insisting to start sexual relations with her, but as she was against such things before marriage, she had refuted his advances. Anyway she had not lost her love for Pramod. It was just that she did not want to have sexual relations with him before marriage. On 15th November, 1993 Rajni came home from college at the usual time of 5 pm. She had her evening cup of tea, and then went to meet her friends. She came back again at about 8 pm, had her dinner and went to her room. At about 10 pm, her father heard some voices from her room. Out of curiosity he went to her room, and knocked at the door. Rajni opened the door after an inordinate delay. Her father however saw someone run away from the window. He immediately rushed to the window and saw a shadow rapidly moving away from the house. Her father became very furious with Rajni and asked who had come to meet her. She wouldn't say anything, but his father knew it was Pramod. He woke up his wife and told everything to her. Rajni's mother became very furious and slapped Rajni twice. She also shouted at Rajni and said that she was ruining the name of the family. This drama went up to 11.30 pm after which Rajni's parents left the room. When in the morning, her parents saw the room still closed at 8 am, they became very worried and knocked at the door. When they couldn't get an answer, they called their neighbors. Someone broke open the door. To everyone's horror, Rajni was found dead in her bed with a scarf tied around her neck. Her skirt was folded up showing her thighs and even her undergarments. Her face was congested. The bedclothing had been thrown back in a manner consistent with getting out of bed. There were no signs of any struggle. However I could notice a flower pot which had tipped down. Rajni was dressed in a nightgown. Some bleeding had occurred from her nose which made a stain on the bedding. The tongue was protruded. From the circumstances, it appeared that someone had strangulated her. Rajni's parents immediately accused Pramod. Her father told the police that he had indeed visited his daughter the previous night, and had entered their house through the drainage pipe. He said that when he caught him in some dastardly act, he ran away from the house. His contention was that Pramod came again after sometime, and killed her. Sarita's statement that lately Pramod was demanding sexual intercourse from her, seemed to corroborate the story that Pramod had indeed killed her. It was quite possible that Pramod came back again after some time, demanded sexual intercourse from Rajni, and when she wouldn't relent, he strangulated her out of frustration. When Pramod was contacted and told that Rajni had died, he seemed perturbed. However he could not give satisfactory answer as to where he was on the night of 15 Nov. Police swung in action and arrested Pramod even as he kept insisting about his innocence. It was at this stage that Rajni's dead body was brought to me for post-mortem. Here I would like to say a few facts about strangulation before we go on further. Strangulation is a kind of death in which the neck is compressed by a ligature. By and large strangulation points to homicide. Although one can commit suicide by strangulating himself, such cases are not very common. I generally take a case of strangulation to be homicidal in nature, unless proved otherwise. Many types of ligature have been used for strangulation. Cases of strangulation with such weird materials as electrical cables are not unknown (reproduce fig. 143 on page 402 here). Strangulation is of several different types. The cases in which some kind of ligature (such as a necktie, scarf, dhoti, or even an electrical cable as just mentioned) is used, go by the name ligature strangulation. However the neck could be constricted by other means too. For instance, one could simply use hands to constrict the neck of his victim. These cases go by the name throttling or manual strangulation ( From Latin manus, hand ). Manual strangulation can leave tell-tale fingernail marks and scratches (from nails of the assailant) on the neck (reproduce fig. 147 on page 411 here) . There might be signs of struggle too, such as bruising of the face (reproduce fig. 139 on page 397 here). The face is generally congested (engorged with blood), but it might be pale (reproduce fig. 141 on page 398 here). Strangulation can also be effected by compressing the victim's neck against the assailant's forearm. This form is known as mugging. When a victim is attacked from the back without warning, and strangled by grasping his throat or throwing a ligature over the neck and tightening it quickly, it is known as garrotting. It can overpower and kill even a healthy robust male without any struggle. Loss of consciousness is so rapid that the assailant is able single-handed, to tie the ligature with one or more turns. Garrotting, as a mode of execution, is practiced in Spain and Turkey. In Spain, the prisoner is seated with his back to a post, to which he is firmly secured. A metal collar is then applied to the neck and tightened. The apparatus may include a spike which is forced into the nape of the neck during the execution. The bowstring is used in Turkey. In our country, especially in the Northern regions, a very weird form of strangulation is used. This is known as Bansdola ( doing away with a bamboo). In this form of strangulation, the neck is compressed between two sticks or hard objects, usually bamboos, one being placed across the throat in front and another behind. These are strongly fastened at one end and a rope is passed at the other to bring the two bamboos together. The unfortunate victim is thus strangled to death. Sometimes, the throat is pressed by means of a bamboo or lathi placed across the front of the neck, the murderer standing with a foot on each end of the bamboo or lathi, thus squeezing the victim. There is another method of strangulation known as the palmar strangulation (reproduce fig 137 on page 393 here). In this method, both palms are so pressed over the nose and mouth that the victim can not breathe. In cases of strangulation, abrasions and bruises round about the ligature mark are quite common. These injuries are produced by the assailant's nails, and even by the victim's own nails during the struggle to pry the ligature away from his neck. Many times, the pattern of the ligature material is reflected very faithfully on the neck. The weave of a rope for instance can come very accurately on the neck and many times a victim can be apprehended from that. In the adjoining figures (reproduce figures 133 and 134 on page 391 here), the weave of the ligature material gave away the criminal. The criminal strangulated a young boy with a plastic twine, with a characteristic weave. This weave was faithfully reproduced on the neck of the victim. When the accused was finally apprehended, a plastic twine was recovered from his which had exactly the same weave as was found on the neck of the boy. This helped to nab the criminal very easily. Differentiating suicidal from homicidal strangulation however can be a very tough affair. In the given case, I found at my wit's end to decide whether I was dealing with a case of suicide or homicide. The pattern certainly seemed similar to homicide. It was quite possible that Pramod came back later in the night to press his demand for sexual intercourse, and when Rajni resisted he strangulated her with her own scarf. It was quite possible for him to do that. Police investigations revealed that lately he was moving in bad company. Rajni's upturned skirt showing her underclothings pointed to the fact that Pramod might indeed have tried to molest her. However the two things that caught my attention were relatively undisturbed state of the room and the position of the knot in front of the neck. If the death was as result of homicide, there should have been a struggle between the two. Rajni might have shouted, but nobody heard her cries in the night. Furthermore one would expect the furniture and other things in the room to be in a violently disturbed state. But everything seemed to be in order, save for a flower pot which might have tipped because of the carelessness of Rajni. In suicidal cases, mostly the knot is in the front. Further the scarf was applied with five turns, and there was a final tying of the free ends with a half-knot. This is the hallmark of self-strangulation. A killer generally makes only one turn around the knot, and more often than not he would merely tighten the ligature without actually tying it. A person committing suicide by strangulation would have to tie the knots. If he merely tightened the noose, he could not strangulate himself. The reason is not hard to find. First of all he would tighten the noose with his muscular effort. Before dying he would fall unconscious. The moment he would fall unconscious, his muscles would relax. He would not be able to keep the ligature tight. The ligature would loosen up and he will start breathing again. Thus if a person wants to commit suicide by strangulation, he would have to tie a knot, so that the grip is not loosened. Another interesting point was the presence of scarf round the neck of Rajni. If Pramod had killed Rajni by strangulation, why hadn't he taken away the ligature material (the scarf) with him? It is very natural for a killer to take away the ligature material from the scene of crime. No criminal wants to leave behind any incriminating piece of evidence. All these pieces of evidence led me to conclude that Rajni had actually committed suicide by strangulating herself. She had been severely scolded by both her parents the previous night. She was in a state of great turmoil otherwise too. Her love-affair was not seen in the proper light by her parents and this had disturbed her a lot. All this caused her to take that drastic step on that night. The police had faith in my findings and released Pramod. A few months later, Rajni's father confided in me that he had indeed found a suicide note in Rajni's drawer, in which she had stated that she was taking her life because her parents refused to acknowledge her love-affair. He had destroyed that suicide note because he wanted Pramod to go behind bars. In his opinion, Pramod was morally and ethically responsible for his daughter's death. This confession confirmed my conclusions in that case. I was very satisfied on that day, that forensic science could help save the life of an innocent young man.