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)

Forensic Science Fiction

Forensic Science Fiction

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-19 DEATHS IN POLICE CUSTODY I have got a good news to give you. Our dear magazine has traveled to foreign lands. I got a tremendous response for my article "Murder by Electric Shock", published in August 1994 issue of Crime & Detective. Quite surprisingly, one of the many letters I received was from Edinburgh, Scotland. It was from a young girl Miss Kavita Vasudeva, an 18 year old NRI living in Britain, who had come to India on a pleasure trip. She picked up this magazine at the airport while returning back to Edinburgh. In the plane she read my piece. She was so moved by it that the first thing she did after reaching Britain was to shoot off a letter to me. She says that she was quite moved by my story and asked if I was aware of any such similar instances from India. To recapitulate the memory of readers, I had talked about a case in which a husband had cunningly electrocuted his wife while she was having her bath. The case which I described was from Britain. Kavita wanted to know if anyone had used this novel method for killing in India. Electrocution is indeed a very rare form of homicide. I am aware of very few such cases from India, but in this piece, as a rejoinder to Kavita's query, I will give a true story which is sent to me by Prof. S.P.Gupta of Faridabad, in response to the very same piece. He has sent me a cutting from "The Times of India" Aug.28,1994 (page 1, column 2 4) which gives a very interesting case of homicide by electricity from India. In this case the accused Surinder Kumar of Rohtak and Kulbir Singh of Hissar concocted a plan in which they were to hire a taxi to go to a different city. Surinder was familiar with electriccal fittings and he knew that a battery attached to a transformer can generate enough voltage to kill a person. Their plan was to hire a taxi to some outside city, electrocute the driver in the way and then decamp with the taxi. The taxi was then to be sold and thus money was to be earned. Both of them first bought a transformer and a battery for Rs. 1800 at Lajpat Rai market in New Delhi. Then they hired a taxi to go to Rohtak. The driver was a man called Munna. Surinder sat with Munna in the front seat and Kulbir sat behind. They had kept the transformer and the battery in a green bag. Near Shiela bypass, Rohtak, Surinder asked the driver to stop and said that he wanted to look up an acquaintance. As Munna was parking the car, Kulbir opened the green bag carrying the transformer and the battery, activated the connections and put the live ends to Munna's temple. Munna died instantly within 30 seconds. Over the next two days they tried selling the taxi a van but one police constable heard of the abnormally low price they were offering and got suspicious. His investigations brought the whole story to light, and thus both the culprits were caught. A very fantastic story indeed. If I had not seen the cutting myself, I would have thought that it was an excellent crime story. But the cutting is right here before my eyes. I have given the reference and all interested readers can look up the relevant paper for more details. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction! Please keep sending such material for the benefit of all our readers and I will see that all contributors get credit for their contributions. Thank you Mr. Gupta for making us aware of such an interesting case. This time I am going to tell you an interesting case of death in police custody. On 17.9.1991 a dead body was brought to me by the area magistrate with the allegation that the said person had been beaten to death by the police. The deceased's name was Harvinder Singh and he was living illegally in Canada since almost three years. He was extradited from Canada when it was found that he did not have the necessary papers to stay in that country. This naturally caused unnecessary embarrassment to the Indian Govt. When Harvinder landed in India, police sleuths were waiting for him at the airport. He was immediately taken into custody where he died after 3 days. His father lodged a complaint with the area magistrate that Harvinder was illegally taken into police custody where he was unnecessarily tortured and it was because of this torture that he had ultimately died. Harvinder may have been living illegally in a different country, and the Indian Govt. may have been embarrassed by his extradition, but Indian police had nothing against him and thus they had no business to detain him, and certainly they were not authorized to torture him, as was alleged. This was the background against which I had to conduct the postmortem and give an opinion. Torture cases by and large are very tricky cases, where many times we may not find any signs of injury. This is mainly because these days many refined methods of torture have appeared which do not leave any overt signs of injury. Preventing a person from sleeping is an excellent form of torture and yet it leaves no signs of injury whatsoever. However such modes rarely if ever, cause the death of a person. Where the death has occurred it is quite obvious that massive injuries have been inflicted, but many a time they are not obvious at all and certainly not in the first instance. An unsophisticated way of torture is simple beating by lathis or rods. If such a type of torture has occurred it makes our work simpler in the sense that such type of torture leaves tell tale signs such as bruises and contusions. A typical sign of beating by rods is the formation of parallel bruises on the body, known as railway track bruises or tramline bruises (reproduce fig. 4.17 given on page 134) .Sometimes injuries inflicted in this manner are so severe that they heal with the formation of a scar. The scar in such cases also take the shape of a railway track (reproduce fig. 10.2 here taken from the book on page 274). Torture by burning is also not uncommon. Such injuries are generally followed by the formation of massive ugly looking scars known as keloids (reproduce fig.10.3 & 10.4 here taken from the book on page 275). Keloid in Latin means like a claw. It certainly looks like a claw. It is an abnormal type of scar which generally forms in black skinned people after not only burns but after any type of severe injury. It differs from an ordinary scar or a hypertrophic scar. We are all aware of ordinary scars which form after cuts and lacerations. These scars do not grow in size after about 4 weeks. A hypertrophic scar on the other hand continues to grow even upto 12 weeks. It is commoner in younger people and it forms particularly after injuries such as burns. It is so common that it may be considered a normal pattern of scar formation in burn injuries. Keloid differs from both these scars in the sense that it continues to grow in size even years after the injury was sustained. Seeing such scars on the body of victims immediately tells us that the victim may have been tortured in the past perhaps by burning. In some cases we can even extrapolate the time period of the infliction of injury by noting the appearance of the keloid. There are many other ways in which a victim can be tortured. Whipping was very common in our country in the past and even now it is being used in many parts of our country. The use of a multi thronged whip, such as a `cat o nine tails' is lot more painful, so many times this device is also used. It leaves a series of linear abrasions or superficial tears. These marks immediately give away the weapon. Sometimes there may be metal tags or knots on the ends of each thong. These metal tags cause much focal damage. By seeing these areas of damage we can even say something about the construction of the whip which was used for torture. There are some special forms of torture too. The most common and perhaps most painful is the so called `falanga'. This is the name given to beating of the soles of the feet with canes or rods. Its practice is going on since ancient times. The beauty of this method is that despite being very painful, it leaves little or no external signs of injury. This is because the skin and other tissues of the soles are very tough and thick, and even after taking tough beating they do not show any signs of injury. However if the investigator is careful and dissects the tissues of the sole, he may find heavy oozing of blood underneath. Another favourite means of torture is the so called `telefono'. It consists of repeated slapping of the sides of the head by the open palms of the assailant. I have conducted many autopsies in cases where the victims were subjected to telefono and who subsequently died of exhaustion. These cases are very tricky because externally there is hardly anything one would find. But if ears are dissected (they have to be dissected from the base of the skull),one finds the ear drums to be ruptured. By seeing the state of repair, we can say if the rupture was recent (and hence due to beating) or old. One last form of torture must be mentioned before I move on to our case. This is known as `knee capping'. This form is practiced in Northern Ireland. This is a form of non fatal punishment, meted out to suspected traitors and opponents. In this method the victim is shot through the knee joint or through the lower thigh. This form of torture obviously leaves tell tale signs and such cases pose no problems from forensic point of view. Coming back to our case now. As I had expected there were no marks of injury visible on external examination. Opening up the thoracic, abdominal and skull cavity also did not reveal anything vital. Generally the cause of death becomes obvious after these three great cavities of the body are opened. Finally I decided to dissect the muscles of the back of the trunk and of thighs. Sure enough I found massive amount of blood there. There was more in the tissues of the sole. This indicated heavy beating by a heavy blunt weapon, perhaps by a cane. Perhaps the police wanted some sort of confession from Harvinder, which was not forthcoming. I called the magistrate and showed him the massive amount of effusion that had taken place. He was nonplussed to see such massive amount of blood, especially as he had not seen anything on the outside and he was treating this case as a routine formality. The verdict that I gave was that "the death was due to haemorrhagic shock (a clinical entity seen when massive amounts of blood are lost from the circulatory system) consequent upon beating".This was yet another case in which forensic science turned out to be a winner.

Forensic Toxicology THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE JUNE 1998 ISSUE THE POISON SLEUTHS DEATH BY SELENIUM -Dr. Anil Aggrawal "Good morning doctor. Oh, my God, what are you doing today? You have the dead body of a young boy today. And his mouth is smelling as if he had eaten garlic before his death. What happened to him? Please tell me." "Good morning Tarun. The name of this young boy is Shyam and he is about 3 years old. His father is an old military hand, and a lover of guns. He was the only child of the family. His mother is a housewife. Yesterday his parents left home to visit one of their relatives, leaving the child with the maid, a young woman named Anita. The maid knew the child well, and Shyam was quite comfortable with her. It appears that for some time, the maid went to the bathroom. At least that is what the maid's version is. When she came back, she saw the child rolling on the ground, retching and vomiting. She immediately telephoned the parents. They rushed to the house and took Shyam to the hospital. When seen in hospital, he was moaning and making purposeless movements with his limbs. Salivation was profuse and he had a strong smell of garlic in his breath- as you have rightly observed now also. Doctors were trying to diagnose what his illness was, but within 45 minutes of his arrival at the hospital, he died." "Oh, that is most terrible. So the police must have now handed over his dead body to you to find out how he actually died?" "Yeah, that's true. Anita is actually a decent woman, and wouldn't do any mischief. But the child's parents are obviously in a very terrible grief, and wouldn't like to spare anyone. The police wouldn't want to spare anyone either in this heinous death. So Anita is not totally out of suspicion. And I have to tell the police how he actually died." "So what have you found out doctor?" "Tarun, when I found the strong smell of garlic from the boy's breath, immediately a bell rang in my mind. I asked the parents if they used garlic at home, and they replied in the negative. This set me thinking......" "Really? So the boy had not eaten any garlic. But I can swear he has eaten garlic. He is smelling so bad of garlic." "Yeah, that's right Tarun. But I must tell you that there are a few poisons which when ingested give rise to almost the same smell. These are selenium, phosphorus, arsenic, tellurium and dimethyl sulfoxide." "Oh, so the boy must have been given either of these poisons?" "Well, let us not jump to conclusions Tarun. These are the possibilities, but certainly the boy might have died of some other cause too. For instance he might have died of some natural illness. But I have enquired the parents if he ever suffered from some major illness, and they have answered in the negative. Then I looked at the body for some obvious injury marks. They are also not present. So it does appear to me that he died of some poison, and the poison is most likely to be one of those I already mentioned." "So how are you going to find out how Shyam actually died?" "Tarun, when I was making enquiries from the parents, I came to know that Shyam's father was a lover of guns. This immediately alerted my mind in one particular direction. Most gun lovers keep a special compound with them; it is called gun-bluing compound. It is actually selenious acid or hydrogen selenide. When rubbed on the guns, it gives them a beautiful metallic sheen. It seemed very probable to me that Shyam had accidentally ingested the gun bluing compound, especially when we take into account that his breath was smelling of garlic. I asked his father if he owned gun-bluing compound, and he was quite surprised how I actually came to know about it. I told him that it was just a hunch. He told me that he did own a bottle of this compound. I asked him to check the bottle. He used to keep the bottle in an open Almirah. When he checked the bottle, he found it open and it was partly empty. He thought that may be he had accidentally spilled the contents over........." "Oh, great. So just by making one or two nice observations you could diagnose the cause of death. But of course the court will require more rigorous proof. Before we go on to that, would you please tell me something about selenium doctor? It is beginning to appear to be such an interesting substance to me." "Oh sure Tarun. Selenium is a nonmetallic element closely related to sulphur. It is found commercially in steel and copper alloys and metal bluing solution as we have seen just now. It is also used for making stained glass, ink and even cosmetics. A suspension of selenium disulphide has been used as a shampoo in the treatment of seborrhoea, which is a kind of skin disease. It is still used, in a 2.5% aqueous solution of selenium sulphide, as a shampoo for the treatment of dandruff!" "Really. I do use a shampoo for dandruff. So does it contain selenium?" "I don't know. It may. You must check its contents which must be written on its wrapper. In any case selenium is not absorbed through unbroken skin, so if you use an anti-dandruff shampoo you are quite well off, if your scalp is not abraded. But if it is, the selenium may get absorbed. If absorbed, it may cause motor neurone disease, which is a kind of neurological disorder. Furthermore if someone accidentally ingests such a shampoo, he may be in trouble." "Alright. The first thing I will do today, is to check the contents of my shampoo. How else does selenium occur?" "Naturally it occurs in the surface soil in certain areas, and is readily absorbed by plants, including grain and vegetables growing in these areas. Herbivorous animals feeding on these plants may accidentally get poisoned by selenium. Endemic poisoning of herbivorous animals and in hens was first described under the name "alkali disease". It could have been the cause of "blind staggers" in cattle in South Dakota where the selenium content of the soil is high." "What is "blind staggers" doctor? Please tell me." "Tarun, it is a disease of cattle in which they show impaird gait and vision- hence the term "blind staggers". In addition, the animals show wasting, stomach upsets, liver damage, bizarre growth, loss of hair and hooves and sometimes sterility. South Dakota is a state in the US, where the soil is excessively rich in selenium. So naturally this selenium is taken by plants and grass too. Animals who fed on this vegetation showed signs of selenium poisoning. And this disease was given the name "blind staggers. Extensive studies have shown that similar symptoms may occur in man, and as grain and vegetables may be conveyed considerable distances these symptoms may occur well outside the recognized endemic areas." "What are the endemic areas" "By this term, I mean those areas where the soil is known to contain high amounts of selenium. There are some very interesting facts connected with selenium. For instance in 1901, it was suggested by some scientists, that some of the toxic manifestations attributed to arsenic in beer were in fact due to the presence of selenium in addition to arsenic." "Well, this point is not very clear to me." "Tarun, beer generally contains some arsenic. And heavy beer drinkers may show some signs of arsenic poisoning too. These scientists suggested that beer may contain selenium in addition to arsenic, and the toxic symptoms may be due to that too. In fact when the Government made a Royal Commission on Arsenical Poisoning, one of these scientists actually gave evidence that such a thing was possible" "Doctor, are all selenium compounds poisonous?" "Yeah, almost all. Many selenium compounds are very irritating or even corrosive to the skin, mucus membranes and respiratory tract. Many selenium compounds were formerly used as plant insecticides, but they have been abandoned now because of their toxicity to man. Selenium oxychloride destroys skin on contact. Selenious acid or hydrogen selenide about which we have just talked, is very caustic when ingested. Fatalities from accidental ingestion of gun bluing agents are however possible. One of the reasons for this is that hydrogen selenide is colorless and odorless, so children may accidentally take it." "But just now you said that hydrogen selenide has garlicky odor. In fact, the child is smelling so bad of garlic, and that actually put you on trail of arsenic" "Tarun, I never said hydrogen selenide is garlicky in odor. I only said that in selenium poisoning one has garlicky odor. Let me tell you how these two statements are compatible. Garlicky odor is actually due to the excretion of dimethyl selenide in the breath. In the body, various selenium compounds can actually get converted to this compound to give rise to garlicky odor. So although selenious acid is odorless in itself, it can give rise to garlicky breath. I may tell you that the garlicky breath of selenium poisoning is so characteristic, that even its discovery itself is attributed to it." "Really? How? Tell me. I like listening to interesting true science stories." "It is said that the housekeeper of the house where Berzelius (the Swedish chemist who discovered Selenium) lived, complained that he had eaten too much garlic. But it was due to his having examined a selenium deposit in a sulphuric acid chamber. He had inhaled fumes which were probably those of dimethyl selenide. This set Berzelium thinking and he went on to discover selenium" "Oh, that is indeed very interesting doctor. Now tell me in how many different ways selenium toxicity can be produced?" "Tarun, toxicity can be produced in a number of ways. One of the ways of course is the direct ingestion of selenium either suicidally, homicidally or accidentally. However, no case of homicidal selenium toxicity has however been reported till now in literature, but it is certainly possible, especially as some of its compounds such as arsenious acid are colorless and odorless. But of course arsenious acid is very corrosive and when one is given this poison mixed in some liquid, he would at once come to know about it, from the corrosive action in his mouth. It is like having drunk dilute hydrochloric acid which also is colorless but very corrosive. Selenium poisoning is also recognized as an industrial hazard in the metal refining, glass making, electrical and chemical industries. And as we have seen, sportsmen and military people who keep shotguns in their homes may also keep gun-bluing compound, which is selenious acid, which can also cause accidental poisoning. Since it is a colorless and odorless fluid, it must be kept out of reach of children. Recently there has been some evidence that selenium is a naturally occurring antioxidant in the body and may be anticarcinogenic. Because of these suggestive findings selenium in various forms is being consumed in megadoses as a dietary supplement. The Centres for Disease Control (CDC), in USA reported 12 persons with nausea, vomiting, nail changes, fatigue and irritability from excessive selenium intake. About half of the patients experienced hair loss, and about one-third lost nails. Other symptoms included watery diarrhoea, abdominal cramps, dryness of hair, paresthesias (abnormal sensations) and garlic breath odor." "Doctor, can you tell me how selenium actually causes the death of a person?" "Tarun, there are certain enzymes within our body which contain sulfhydryl groups, i.e. -SH groups. These enzymes are very necessary for cellular respiration. Selenium bonds sulfhydryl enzymes and causes poisoning. I may tell you that arsenic also does the same, and is thus an equally deadly poison. Other compounds of selenium besides selenious acid are dangerous too. For instance, as sodium selenate, selenium is highly toxic. Acute selenium poisoning produces primarily central nervous system effects, including convulsions. The initial symptoms are nausea, vomiting and a metallic taste in the mouth, dizziness and extreme lassitude. Garlicky odor of the breath and sweat is very characteristic. In industrial situations, a worker may slowly absorb selenium in his system. He will then be said to have been suffering from Chronic selenium poisoning or chronic selenosis. It is manifested by garlic breath odor, stomach and intestine distress, upper airway irritation, metallic taste in mouth and inability to smell. The odor of garlic is perhaps the most characteristic feature. I may tell you that more than half the absorbed selenium is excreted in urine, the remainder in the faeces and in the breath as I have already told you. In endemic areas, urinary excretion of selenium may be as high as 200 micrograms/100 ml without obvious symptoms, while in industry symptoms have been noted with as little as 5-13 micrograms/100 ml." "Doctor, how much selenium can actually kill a person?" "Nobody knows for sure Tarun. But from the various poisoning cases that have come to light, doctors are of the opinion that the fatal dose is about 4 mg/kg body weight. That is, if a person weighs 60 kg, about 240 mg of a selenium compound would be enough to kill him. This, as you can see is quite a low dose, and this makes selenium a very dangerous poison. Its fatal period is about half to one hour. This means that after ingestion, a person would usually die within this period." "Oh, now I know so much about selenium. Now I am ready to listen to you, how you are actually going to prove in the court that the child did die of selenium poisoning, and who killed him?" "Tarun, we have already noted the garlicky odor which is a strong indicator towards selenium poisoning. Furthermore there is congestion (redness) and edema (swelling) of the gastric mucosa, the membrane which lines the stomach. The most important thing is that I have analysed Shyam's organs chemically, and have found high amounts of selenium in them. I have also chemically analysed the gun bluing fluid found at his house and it was found to contain 1.81% of selenious acid. I do not think Anita gave this poison to Shyam. She is an illiterate woman and does not know about the toxicity of gun-bluing compound. Moreover she had no motive to do so. Gun-bluing compound, as I told you earlier, can very easily be ingested accidentally as it is colorless and odorless, and doesn't alarm the person at all. It does appear to me, that when the maid was away, Shyam wandered towards his father's almirah, which was open. He looked at the bottle and was quite curious. Children like to put everything in their mouth, and in his naturally curiosity, he drank some of the liquid, which was responsible for all his symptoms. Well these are my observations only, and it is for the court to decide what actually happened. I can only tell the court with certainly that the child did die of selenium poisoning, and most probably Anita is not guilty." "Oh, how very clever of you doctor. This was a most interesting discussion. Tell me what are you going to tell me the next time?" "Tarun, next time, I would tell you about a very interesting poison- DNOC."

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-22 DEATH BY AIR INJECTION I had a tremendous response for my article "Deaths in Police custody", published in the November, 1994 issue of Crime & Detective. Mr. Shambhu Nath Gupta writes from Ludhiana, Punjab that he loved the article. However he wants to know why physical torture in police custody is known as the third degree method. Well Mr. Gupta, there is no clear cut answer to this. There are many theories as to the origin of the term "third degree". One that I am aware of is this. Generally when one utters the word "third" in connection with anything it is used as equivalent to "poor" or "inferior in quality". We commonly talk of a third division, or a third rate book. We even talk of third class people, when we want to talk about mean people. "Third degree" might refer to a poor and unscientific method of extracting information from a criminal. Torture certainly is an unscientific method of extracting information from a criminal. However Mr. Sudhir Bansal from Karol Bagh has come out with another ingenious explanation. He also liked the article and has himself volunteered information on this. He says that there are three degrees of extracting information from a criminal, the degrees increasing in severity and brutality as we go up by numbers. First degree method is to extract the truth by interrogation. Second degree method is to inflict mental torture. Third degree is the well-known method of inflicting physical torture. Sounds quite a reasonable and plausible explanation to me! Many people have asked if I could tell them something about the history of "third degree" method. Well, the use of physical torture to test a person's innocence was commonly practiced in Europe during medieval times in trial by ordeal. The principle-adapted from pagan rites by the Church-was that a person's innocence in respect of a criminal accusation could be tested by his ability to withstand pain and injury. Two of the most popular tests involved contact with boiling water and red-hot metal. In cases where there was a lack of clear guilt, the accused person was required to plunge his arm into a bowl of scalding water and retrieve a stone! If after 3 days there was evidence of burning on the skin the person was judged to be guilty. Similar tests involved walking on red hot ploughshares or gripping a piece of hot metal in the hands without the flesh being burned. The idea was that if a person was not guilty of the accusation, his innocence would protect him. So much for the third degree. This time I am going to tell you about a very ingenious way of committing murder. This is by injecting air in somebody's veins. If somebody is indeed murdered using this technique, it is extremely difficult to detect it. Yet there are ways to detect it, if the forensic pathologist is careful. The interesting thing about this sinister technique is that it uses none of the traditional gory weapons like firearms or daggers, nor does it use poisons. The murder device is quite simply and surprisingly air, which is so harmless and ubiquitous. It is almost unbelievable that such an innocuous looking thing as air could kill someone. Actually air or for that matter anything in this universe can kill a person, if it is wrongly placed in a human body. This case is also a similar case. In this case air gets ensconced in a place where it normally shouldn't be! Such cases are technically known as cases of "air embolism". The word embolism comes from Greek en, "in," and ballein, "to throw or cast". Since in this technique, air is "thrown in" or "cast in" the blood vessels, it is known as air embolism. Henceforth we will be using the term "air embolism", whenever we would refer to injection of air in the blood vessels to kill someone. Readers may be interested to know that the concept of air embolism for murder has been used time and again in crime novels, one of the best instances being in the famous writer Dorothy L. Sayer's novel where `a hypodermic of air was injected into an artery'. Before telling anything further about death by air embolism, let us first understand a little bit about the way our blood circulates in our body. This is very essential to understand how a person get killed by injection of air. Our heart is comprised of 4 chambers. There are two chambers on the right and two on the left side. The chambers on the right side are known as right atrium and right ventricle, while the chambers on the left side are known as left atrium and left ventricle. The location of these chambers will become clearer by referring to the adjacent figure (Ed: Please reproduce the figure on page 282 here. Please reproduce in colour, as this is very essential for proper understanding) . Here lungs, legs, head and arms are depicted only symbolically. Bad blood from legs, head, arms and in fact from every part of the body returns to the upper right chamber called the right atrium. The bad blood in the figure has been represented by blue colour, while the good blood has been represented by red colour. Keep referring to the figure to follow the route taken by the blood. A proper understanding of the normal route of the blood is very essential. With each contraction of the heart the right atrium sends this bad blood to the right ventricle. The right ventricle, in turn, sends this blood to the lungs via pulmonary arteries. Do not let the complicated names baffle you. Just remember that atrium and ventricles are fancy sounding names of some chambers of the heart. Ventricle is a larger chamber than atrium. Also keep in mind that "artery" is the name of a conduit which takes the blood away from the heart while vein is the name of a conduit which brings blood to the heart. The word pulmonary comes from Latin pulmo, "the lung". Thus "pulmonary artery" refers to a conduit which takes the blood away from the heart towards the lung. In the lung, the bad blood is purified. This is done by the help of the air which we breathe all the time (even at the time of sleeping). The pure blood (now depicted as red) is returned to the heart via pulmonary veins. The blood comes in the third chamber of the heart known as left atrium. Left atrium sends this blood to the left ventricle, which in turn, pumps this pure blood to the whole body via a very big conduit known as aorta. The body organs use this pure blood, and when this blood becomes impure, it is once again returned to the right atrium. And thus the circulation goes on. Now we are ready to understand how air embolism works. First of all we must appreciate that nature has made this whole system of circulation air-proof. This means that there is no way, air could enter this system of conduits and pipes. If somehow air could enter the system (such as by injection of plain air through a syringe), the air will form an "air lock" within the system. This "air lock" is quite familiar to plumbers and owners of diesel engines, where the normal flow of liquid through tubes is wholly or partially blocked by air. Quite in the same manner this air lock blocks the flow of blood through the arteries and veins, thus bringing the circulation to a halt. Let us make this a little more clearer. Air could be made to enter the circulation either through the arteries (red coloured conduits) or through the veins (blue coloured conduits). More commonly injections for murder are given in the veins. When such an injection is given, the air bubbles start travelling towards the right atrium. From right atrium they keep travelling onwards till they come to the lung. Here the capillaries are too narrow to allow the big bubbles to pass. The result is that these bubbles get entangled in the blood vessels of the lung. The whole blood traffic stops and the person dies very quickly. In fact his bad blood can not be purified by the lungs, because traffic of blood towards the lungs has been stopped. The body can not imagine that such a sinister thing has happened. It "thinks" that the blood is not getting purified because of lack of air. So it quickens the respiration. The person starts gasping. But nothing helps because the cause lies somewhere else and the person dies. The beauty of the technique lies not only in its simplicity but also in another thing-the difficulty of detection of this condition at post-mortem examination. When a person dies of air embolism, the only abnormal thing that is there within his body is a bubble of air somewhere in his blood vessels. If the forensic pathologist is not careful, the bubble would vanish the moment the body is opened. Thus in every suspected murder case, first of all I take an X-ray of the dead body. It might surprize the reader as to why one would like to X-ray a dead person. The reason is that the air bubbles are seen very well in an X-ray. When the body is still not open, the air bubbles lie undisturbed in the blood vessels and we can see where the bubbles lie. Look at the adjacent figure closely to know where I expect the air bubbles to lie in a case of air-embolism. In the place of lungs you see a network of conduits, which is partly blue coloured and partly red coloured. The air bubbles lie in this network of conduits, and many times in the pulmonary artery itself. When the X-ray of the dead body indicates that this might indeed be a case of air embolism, we open the body very carefully. Because if we do not open it carefully, the air bubbles might escape the moment the body is opened. In such cases we dissect the blood vessels under water. The detailed technique is very complicated and I do not want to confuse you by giving details of this technique. Just remember that we dissect the blood vessels under water. If air is present within the blood vessels, bubbles of air will be seen to emerge. It is like finding a leak in a bicycle tube by immersing the tube in water! Murder by air embolism is quite rare, despite the strong chances of a murderer escaping scot free in such cases. This is because such a technique requires great skill. Not everyone can handle a syringe, let alone puncture a vein successfully with it. I have a nagging fear that such type of murder might be very common among the drug addicts of our country. They are quite suited for committing such types of murder. They can handle syringes very deftly (almost as deftly as doctors, as they have to inject the drugs through the syringe all the time), and they need to do away with people fairly commonly. In my whole life, I have encountered just one case of murder by air embolism and that too when I was in Edinburgh. The case was of a doctor husband who had got tired of his nagging wife. The husband was carrying on an affair with one of his female patients and his wife had got hint of that. She was having fits of faintness for quite sometime. So one day the doctor filled up a large syringe with air and injected air into her veins under the pretext that he was giving her some drug. About 200 c.c. of air is required to kill a person by air embolism. I do not know how he managed to inject that much amount through a syringe. Even a commonly used large syringe takes in about 20 c.c. of air only. He might have used a bigger syringe or may be he repeatedly pushed the air inside by removing the piston from the syringe again and again. Well, the important thing is that he did use the air for committing the murder. He would have gone scot free, but when I asked one of the witnesses as to what were the symptoms of the lady when she was dying, I was told that she was gasping for air. This immediately alerted me. This is a symptom of air embolism as we have already seen. Coupled with this was the fact that her husband was a doctor. He was ideally suited for committing such a type of act. So before opening the body, I decided to take a radiograph (X-ray) of the body. Sure enough the bubbles of air could be seen in the deceased woman's pulmonary arteries. Then I looked at the dead woman's forearms. They showed marks of injection. Immediately I alerted the Lothian and Borders Police (the police force that mans the city of Edinburgh). A detailed interrogation was done and sure enough the doctor admitted his guilt. This was yet another victory of Forensic Medicine.

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-8 WHEN THE BODY TURNS INTO WAX ! Saroj, 16, and Mahendra, 12 were brother and sister. On June 8, 1987, they went to play as usual in the garden, but they never returned. Saroj was a beautiful girl and her parents were always quite reserved in allowing her out alone. On that day however, she was able to cajole her parents into allowing her to go out with her brother. A complaint with the police did not result in any benefit either. The police asked various questions, including about the people the parents suspected. But the family had no enemies whatsoever. As time passed, it became clear that Saroj and Mahendra were kidnapped by some gang, presumably with the purpose of having intercourse with Saroj. There was a gang in town which had once kidnapped a young 19 year old girl, kept her in detention for as many as three months, during which she was forced into intercourse day and night. When the gang members were tired of sex, they would all sit together in a circle and ask her to perform naked dances in the center. After meting out this inhuman treatment to her for three months, they finally did away with her. Her body was found three and a half months later, quite putrefied in a forest. Only one member of the gang could be arrested and from him, the whole story was revealed. The body bore several stab marks, which showed that the modus operandi of the gang was to kill by stabbing. Lakhiram and Revati, the parents of Saroj and Mahendra shivered at this thought. They kept searching for their children, but without any success. On January 15, 1988, one highly putrefied body was found in a forest about 50 miles away from the village of Lakhiram and Revati. Most of the body had been eaten away by animals and maggots were crawling on what remained of the corpse. It was impossible to identify the dead person from the remains. I was called by the police inspector at the place. I made some preliminary examination of the bone and told the police that the bones belonged to a male between 11 and 13 years of age. Moreover, the person, whoever he was, had suffered osteomyelitis (an infection of the bone) in his right leg, about two year before. This description fitted Mahendra exactly. Lakhiram and Revati were immediately contacted and they admitted that Mahendra had suffered from a terrible weeping sore about two and a half years back and also that the sore had healed with great difficulty after about six months of treatment. This, of course, is not the main part of the story. This only established that the victim was Mahendra. But I could not say who had killed him or how had he been killed. This was vital for the police to know. One thing however became clear. If Mahendra had been killed, it was quite possible that his sister Saroj had also been killed and was disposed off in a nearby area itself. A police party launched a massive search for the body of Saroj. They were expecting her body, too, to be in the same state of deterioration; so everyone's stomach was turning topsy-turvy. But lo and behold! Two days later a constable of the search party accidentally stumbled upon a quite well-preserved body of a teenaged girl on the shores of a nearby pond. The body was naked and so well preserved that everybody could at once recognize it was Saroj. When the search party touched the body, it felt as it was like soft wax. Everyone was nonplussed. What had happened to Saroj? I was called immediately. When I arrived there and looked at the body, I realized at once that I was dealing with an adipocere. I rubbed some of the body's material between my thumb and index finger. It gave me a cheesy feeling. I smelt the material. The smell was somewhat similar to that of old cheese. Here then was the body of Saroj, turned into adipocere and intuitively I knew that now I could tell a lot of things to the police regarding the crime. Let us introduce a red herring into the story and first see what an adipocere is. The word adipocere comes from two Latin words, adeps meaning fat and sera meaning wax. It is also known by several other names such as Grave Wax, Mortuary Fat , or Saponified Tissue . This is a situation when the body fat turns into wax under certain special conditions. When a person is killed and thrown away in a forest, his body will normally putrefy. But if there is water in the vicinity or the ground on which the body is thrown is wet and the temperature is quite high then the conditions are just right for the body fats to turn into wax. A very complex chemical reaction takes place for this to happen. For the more scientifically-minded readers, the unsaturated body fats are first saturated to firmer fats and this firmer fat is then split into fatty acids and glycerol. Glycerol usually drains away. The remaining fatty acids (mainly saturated fatty acids such as palmatic acid, stearic acid, hydroxystearic acid and oleic acid) may then combine with body calcium to form soaps and waxes. Adipocere is thus essentially composed of saturated fatty acids such as palmatic acid, stearic acid, hydroxystearic acid, oleic acid and their calcium salts. Adipocere forms mainly at those parts of the body where there is a lot of accumulation of body fat. Such areas are cheeks, buttocks, breasts and thighs. Since Saroj's body had been thrown near a pond, the conditions were just right for her body to be turned into adipocere. Once a body turns into adipocere, it does not undergo normal decomposition, and remains as such. It gives the forensic expert a lot of benefits. For one thing, the features of the person remain discernible. Secondly, since the body is more or less preserved, one can say how the person died. Adipocere is a yellowish white, greasy, wax like substance with a rancid smell. It is lighter than water. If we cut out some adipocere from the body of such a person, and put it in water, we find that it will float. It cuts easily and burns with a faint yellow flame giving offensive odor. Fresh adipocere is soft and moist, but old samples are dry and brittle. Adipocere takes about 3 months to form, so we can form a idea when the person was done to death. The body of Saroj was found on January 15, 1988. So, at a rough guess, she must have been killed on or around October 15, 1987. She had been kidnapped on June 8, 1987. So it appeared that she had been kept in captivity for about 4 months. This pointed to her having been used for sexual purposes. Since her body was well preserved, I could examine her genitals, which too had been converted into adipocere. Her hymen, the soft membrane which cover the vagina, was completely mutilated indicating that she had indeed been used for sexual intercourse. Her left breast and both buttocks showed very clear stab wounds. These stab wounds would normally have been obliterated if normal putrefaction had set in. But since her body had been converted into the wax-like adipocere, the stab marks were clearly visible. Her kidnapping and confinement, her use as an object of sexual intercourse and the method of her killing, all pointed to the dreaded Devi gang which had earlier done the same deed. Devi gang had big political connections and until and unless the police had solid clues to back them, they could not dare to touch the gang. But now since I had provided them with all vital clues, they went fully armed to nab the Devi Gang and made tough inquires. Sure enough, very soon, the gang cracked up and confessed to the abduction, sexual molestation and killing of Saroj. They had to finally kill Saroj because she had become pregnant. When the case went to court, the court admitted my medical evidence and had no difficulty in convicting the members of Devi gang. In this particular case, my knowledge of science helped me to unravel crime. A non-specialist would have been quite nonplussed to see the waxy body of Saroj, but I knew it was adipocere. To summarize, this adipocere formation helped me to (i) establish her identity (ii) establish the cause of her death and (iii) indicate the time of her death. These facts together enabled me to weave a coherent story which ultimately helped in catching the culprits.

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.

Forensic Jokes, Puns & Tidbits Forensic Puns 1. A tourist in Vienna is going through a graveyard and all of a sudden he hears some music. No one is around, so he starts searching for the source. He finally locates the origin and finds it is coming from a grave with a headstone that reads: Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770-1827. Then he realizes that the music is the Ninth Symphony and it is being played backward! Puzzled, he leaves the graveyard and persuades a friend to return with him. By the time they arrive back at the grave, the music has changed. This time it is the Seventh Symphony, but like the previous piece, it is being played backward. Curious, the men agree to consult a music scholar. When they return with the expert, the Fifth Symphony is playing, again backward. The expert notices that the symphonies are being played in the reverse order in which they were composed, the 9th, then the 7th, then the 5th. By the next day the word has spread and a throng has gathered around the grave. They are all listening to the Second Symphony being played backward. Just then, the graveyard's caretaker ambles up to the group. Someone in the group asks him if he has an explanation for the music. "Don't you get it?" the caretaker asks incredulously. [Guess now, before scrolling down] No cheating, make a guess before scrolling. Not even a wild guess before scrolling? He's decomposing.* 2. I was standing in line at an airport to check in for a flight. For 15 minutes, the queue hardly moved, and patience was wearing thin. Suddenly an irate voice from the back demanded to know what the holdup was. A voice from the front replied,"I'm afraid Riga mortis has set in." (Contributed by Chris Bane. Published in Readers' Digest December 1999 page 32) 3. Is it correct to say that all Forensic Personnel are in a grave situation?

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-10 WHAT DO THE FINGERPRINTS TELL US ? Sometimes seemingly trivial clues can be very helpful in detecting crime. A fascinating case came my way about 3 years back, which I solved with practically no clues‑ well, almost. I only had a very trivial clue which no person would have even imagined to be helpful in the least. But let me begin my story from the beginning. On the morning of August 19, 1990, the body of Sunita Babbar was found in her flat in Ghaziabad. Somebody had killed her hitting her head with a heavy rod. She was married two years back and had a one year old son. Her husband Rajesh Babbar a clerk in a local private office was getting Rs. 3000/‑ per month. they were living in a joint family‑the whole family occupying a common ancestral house. The night before the killing, all members of the joint family except Rajesh, Sunita and their little son were out. They had gone to the shrine of Vaishno Devi for pilgrimage. Since a few months, tension was brewing up in the house regarding the meagre dowry Sunita had brought. Sunita's mother-in-law Tejwanti wanted that Sunita's father should have giving them a colour TV, so that the whole family could enjoy with it. However, Sunita's father could not fulfil this demand despite his best efforts. This had led to some tension in the house. Sunita's mother‑in‑law Tejwanti and sister‑in‑law Lali sometimes used to misbehave with her. Sunita's husband Rajesh used to keep quite and steered himself out of this tension. Sunita was quite tensed up with the behavior of her in‑laws. She had even written a couple of letters to her parents about this. In the evening of August 18, Sunita and her husband Rajesh were watching their black and white TV in the drawing room, while their son Raju was sleeping in the other room. At about 9.30 pm. Rajesh's friend Ashok Talwar came and invited him to his house for drinks, as he had recently got the promotion. Rajesh jumped at this offer and immediately got ready to accompany him. When Rajesh went to his bedroom to get ready, Ashok sat near Sunita and began staring at her with lustful eyes. Sunita never appreciated his such habits. Once he had tried to make an obscene pass at her and she had even complained about this to her husband, but Rajesh had laughed the matter off. Sunita had a hunch that Ashok secretly wanted to have sex with her. She had once mentioned this fact in her diary too. When Rajesh came back from his bedroom after getting ready, Sunita requested him not to go away leaving her and her son alone in the house. Rajesh did not want to miss the offer of a free drink. He assured Sunita that he will be back around 11 pm. Sunita knew he has giving a false assurance to her, but there was no option for her. Reluctantly she closed the door behind her. Then she went into her room and having nothing better to do, started writing her diary. She was in the practice of writing her diary since last ten years. This diary ultimately fell into the hands of the police from where the police came to know of many facts about her. Ashok Talwar's earlier lustful behavior and his behavior and intention on the night of August 18, was also mentioned in the diary. Apparently Sunita waited for Rajesh upto 12 at midnight and then slept. Rajesh hadn't come by that time. The police apprehended Rajesh from the house of Ashok Talwar. Rajesh told the police that on the night of August 18, when he had gone to Ashok Talwar's house, Talwar had offered him drink after drink till he blanked out at Talwar's residence itself. Ashok Talwar was a shady character. He couldn't answer police queries very well as to what had prompted him to take away Rajesh to his house on that fateful night, when he knew very well that Sunita would be alone. He persisted in saying that he wanted to give Rajesh a treat on his promotion. On enquiry the police found that Talwar had indeed got a promotion about 3 months back. The question was why he gave a treat to Rajesh after such a long period? Apparently there was no sense in giving a party after such a long gap. To the police Talwar could not give any reasonable answer to this question. Another remarkable fact was that no other person had been invited for that party. In fact it could hardly be called a party. For all intents and purposes, it appeared that Talwar wanted to have Sunita alone on that night. Police inspector Chauhan developed a very weird but convincing theory from his investigations. According to him, Talwar was having a lustful eye on Sunita for a long time, but he was not getting a proper chance. When on August 18, Rajesh's family left for Vaishno Devi, Talwar noticed the opportunity. If he could somehow draw Rajesh away from his house, Sunita would be alone and he would be able to quench his lust. So he came to Rajesh's house at 9.30 pm. and took him away on a very flimsy ground. At his residence, Talwar, completely boozed Rajesh till he lost his consciousness. In the midnight around 12 pm. he came to Sunita's house and rang the bell. Sunita opened the door thinking Rajesh had returned. Thus Talwar gained entry to Sunita's house easily. There he raped her and either killed her afterwards intentionally or she died without his intention to kill her, during the course of rape itself. Frequently during the acts of rape, the rapist tries to stifle the cries of the victim by pushing a pillow against her face. Quite possibly, after Talwar was through with Sunita, he found to his horror that he had inadvertently killed Sunita and then he bolted away, came back to his house and slept. The theory seemed very plausible and all the known facts seemed to fit in perfectly well in this story. It was at this stage, that I was called by the police inspector Chauhan to inspect Sunita's body and the scene of crime. Post‑mortem examination revealed that Sunita had died because of a head injury. Somebody had hit her head with a heavy rod. There were no signs of suffocation. This was a major blow to Chauhan's hypothesis. Yet he insisted that he was right. He had an intuition that Talwar was the killer. He now said that Talwar must have raped Sunita first and then deliberately killed her. This was also a plausible alternative. All in all we couldn't find much to disprove Chauhan's hypothesis. An examination of Sunita's genitals revealed that she was used to sexual intercourse and one act of sexual intercourse had been performed on her shortly before her death. I could not say much about the timing of the act. It could be just before her death or as long as 10‑12 hours before her death. I fixed her time of death (see 'Crime & Detective' February 1993 , page 90) as 2 am on August 19. This meant that the act of sexual intercourse could have taken place anytime after 2 pm on August 18. this was not of much help as Sunita was alone with her husband on August 18, till 9.30 pm. and that act could reasonably have been done by Rajesh himself. Chauhan was desperate to prove himself right and he went to Rajesh and interrogated him. Certainly a strange question to ask from a recently bereaved husband, yet the investigation had to be completed. Rajesh admitted demurely that he and Sunita had sexual intercourse on that day at about 5 pm. Chauhan's theory was still not busted because even after this, Talwar could have indulged in sex with her. I had not said that Sunita had only one act of intercourse. The only thing I could say was that she had engaged in sex shortly before her death. Nobody could have said anything about the number of acts she had gone through. I now concentrated on the scene of crime‑ the place where Sunita's body was found and not before long I found two short clippings of nail on the floor. It appeared that Sunita had violently resisted on attack on her and during the scuffle, the assailant tried to scratch her. During this act the nail of the assailant broke and fell on the ground. When we examined Talwar's hands all his nails had been recently clipped. Chauhan insisted that Talwar had become aware of his broken nails and to hide this fact he had clipped all his nails. Anyway, I managed to take a small sliver of nail from each of Talwar's fingers. In 2 hours, I was able to tell Chauhan with cent per cent certainty that Talwar was not the culprit. How did I do this feat? Well! before I go ahead, look at your nails very carefully. You will find long striations over them, some of them are thick and some are thin. These striations are there in a fixed pattern in each individual. Every individual could be recognized positively by his unique pattern of nail striations. I tried to match the striations of the broken nails, I had found on the floor with the striations of nail silvers I had clipped from Talwar's hands. I tried hard to match them but couldn't match them at all. We can look at the nail clippings in three major ways. Fig 1 shows all these three ways. One is to look at the untreated fingernail. A better way is to first put a thin layer of metal on the fingernail and then look at it. Another way is to look at it between crossed Polaroid films. Very few crime specialists like to look at the nails in the last way but for the sake of completeness I have mentioned all the ways. Another important fact to remember is that the striations would not match even in twins sisters. Both fingernails have been taken from the left little finger. You can easily find out that the striations do not match at all. The striations also do not change over a period of time. They remain constant and are thus a very valuable tool for positive identification. Fig 3 shows 4 clippings form the same person, taken over a period of 10 years. You can see that all striations match perfectly with each other. So, these clippings really came as a boon for Talwar. He had been arguing about his innocence from the moment he was apprehended but nobody was ready to believe him. In fact all the available evidences pointed so strongly at him that nobody could think in a different way. Now, that Talwar was exonerated, the police made more searches. Rajesh reported very soon that from his almirah some jewellery and cash were missing. The theory now shifted to that of burglary. Three noted burglars of the area were apprehended after 15 days. I took nail clippings of all the three and could say positively that out of them Kartar Singh was the one, who had committed the burglary and murder. His nails striations matched perfectly with those I found on the floor. On sustained interrogations Kartar Singh admitted his guilt. In the court too, Kartar Singh confessed his crime. The court gave due importance to my medical evidence and Kartar Singh was jailed for life. It was at that moment that Talwar came to me and touched my feet. It was my evidence based on science, which had exonerated him. I sometimes think now, what would have happened, had I not found those clipping, had I not found those clippings? Sooner or later Rajesh would have discovered that his cash and jewellery were missing. But, could merely that finding, in the absence of clippings, have saved Talwar? Could Talwar's lawyer successfully plead in the court that it was the work of a burglar and not of Talwar, because cash and jewellery were missing? I think no, because the prosecution could have argued that Talwar took away cash and jewellery just to give it the look of burglary. Talwar would have been in a difficult position to counter such argument. In fact, in past, sexual murders have been committed by family friends, who have done just this to give the whole situation a look of burglary. Anyway, even if court would have given him the benefit of doubt (which I feel impossible). Talwar would have undergone the agony of a long court ordeal. The finding of nail clippings exonerated him completely in just one go. ***

Forensic Toxicology THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE MARCH 1997 ISSUE THE POISON SLEUTHS THE MYTH OF THE SPANISH FLY -Dr. Anil Aggrawal "Good morning doctor. Oh, my God, what are you doing with the dead body of this young woman? " "Good morning Tarun. This is the body of an unmarried 20 year old girl Rita. She was in love with one Suresh, who is a student of Ayurvedic medicine. It is suspected that they had secret relations and Rita was pregnant. In order to get rid of this unwanted pregnancy, Suresh secretly administered some drug to her. Immediately thereafter Rita complained of severe cramps in her abdomen. She vomited blood, passed blood in her urine, and died in about 4 hours." "So her body has been brought to you, so you can tell the police how she died?" "Exactly. The police apprehended Suresh, but he has alleged that he did not give anything to her. He has also alleged that she had an ulcer in her stomach which might have perforated and given rise to these symptoms. So it has become extremely important for me to find out the truth. Stomach ulcer does give rise to some of the symptoms exhibited by her, but at her age one does not generally get stomach ulcer. Moreover a patient of perforated stomach ulcer does not pass blood in the urine. To me it seems more like a case of Spanish Fly poisoning..." "What! Spanish Fly!! What kind of a poison is that? To me it appears the name of some insect rather than poison." "Yes Spanish Fly indeed is an insect. But the name is rather a misnomer. It is neither strictly Spanish nor a fly. It is a beetle belonging to the order Coleoptera, and Family Meloidea. Besides Spain, it is also found in several other Mediterranean countries such as southern France, and Italy and also in Russia. In Europe, it is usually found clustered on privet (an evergreen shrub, bearing small white flowers, much used for garden hedges) or such trees as ash or elder. Also known as blister beetle, it is about 2 cm long and 0.75 cm broad and is usually found on olive trees. Its body and wings have a shiny metallic green color. Its biological name is Cantharis vesicatoria. It is the most celebrated of all aphrodisiacs. When an average person thinks of an aphrodisiac, Spanish Fly comes immediately to his mind. "Just a minute doctor. You have introduced certain terms which I don't quite understand. You say that Spanish Fly is also known as the blister beetle. Why is that? And what is an aphrodisiac?" Spanish Fly. These are the crushed bodies of the insect, which can be used as a poison "Tarun, Spanish fly has a chemical in its body known as Cantharidin. It is an irritant. When it is rubbed over the body, it produces blisters. That is why it is known as blister beetle. The term aphrodisiac comes from Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of love and beauty. When the dried and crushed body of Spanish fly is ingested, it causes severe inflammation in kidneys, ureters and all other organs of genital tract. Because of this property there is a swelling in genital organs. This gave rise to a false belief that Spanish fly could be used for the treatment of impotent people. There is however no truth in this. The swelling of the genital organs, instead of being pleasurable, is extremely painful. Moreover, the dose required to produce such swelling is close to the fatal dose. In women, it may cause violent and painful contractions of the uterus. Because of this, the beetle is sometimes administered by quacks for inducing clandestine abortions." "Are there several types of Spanish flies doctor?" "Tarun, Several different genus and species of beetles are known to contain Cantharidin. All of them have been called the Spanish fly. In the USA, Epicauta and Nemognatha genuses are commonly encountered, of which Epicauta vittata is very well known. In India, three different varieties are found. One variety known as Telni Makkhi (Mylabris cichorii), occurs abundantly in the rainy season in certain parts of North India, especially Kashmir. Another variety (Mylabris pustulata), is found in the fields of cereals and vegetables in the neighborhood of Bangalore. The third species known as Mylabris macilenta is found in southern regions of our country. In Morocco it is available freely in pure form or as an ingredient in the melange of hot spices called ras el hanout, which is usually taken to increase the libido. In 19th century France, it was commonly available as philtre amoureux or love philtre. "Doctor, how is the so-called aphrodisiac made from these flies?" "Tarun, by tradition the beetles were gathered before sunrise while still torpid and unable to fly, the collectors veiling their faces and hands before shaking them down on to cloths laid on the ground. This method may still be in use today. The insects were then dried and heated until they disintegrate into a fine powder. The powder can be easily recognized from its bright green metallic lustre. Several proprietary medicines are made from this powder. In USA, cantharides collodion is in recognized topical use for wart treatment. Cantharidin is used in several hair oils in India. The belief is that the cantharidin stimulates the hair roots and induces them to grow, but this belief has little scientific sanction. Sometimes a tincture is produced by dissolving the powder in alcohol. A vinegar type preparation may also be produced by percolation with acetic acid and water. Aphrodisiac sweets were made by impregnating sugared sweets, and were widely used under the name pilles galantes. They were also sometimes called pastilles de Richelieu, because Duc de Richelieu (1585-1642) administered them to his mistresses. As you must surely be knowing, he was chief minister to the French king Louis XIII from 1624 till his death in 1642. It was said that Madame du Barry, a famous French courtesan, referred to them as pastilles de sérail (pastilles of the seraglio), using them on herself, or perhaps administering them to young women to prepare them for their amorous duties with the ageing Louis XV. " Doctor, earlier you said that Spanish Fly contains a chemical known as cantharidin. Could you please let me know a little bit more about it?" "Yes, certainly. Cantharidin was isolated in 1810 by a French chemist, Roviquet. It is present in the ovaries, soft tissues and blood of the beetle. Cantharidin is a comparatively simple organic compound which occurs as colorless, odorless crystals..." "But doctor, you have just said that Spanish Fly powder is bright metallic green...?" "Tarun, although the Spanish Fly powder has a bright green metallic lustre, cantharidin- its active chemical constituent- is colorless. These crystals glisten in light yet give no color reactions and can not be detected by any simple chemical test. The old powdered preparations of Spanish Fly can however be identified by using a microscope to show the characteristic fragments of insect in the powder. "What is its fatal dose doctor?" "Tarun, about 1.5 grams of powdered Spanish Fly or 50 mg of pure crystalline cantharidin is enough to cause death. I must tell you that although Spanish fly is not an aphrodisiac at all, it has been used effectively in veterinary medicine in breeding farm animals." "What symptoms does one experience on swallowing the poison?" "When swallowed, there is a burning sensation in the throat and stomach, difficulty in swallowing, nausea, abdominal pain, vomiting of blood stained material, intense thirst, and diarrhoea with blood and mucus. As time passes, kidneys get damaged. There is a dull heavy pain in the loins, and a constant desire to pass urine, but only small amount of blood stained urine is passed This last symptom is known as strangury. After some time, convulsions occur and death occurs in 24 hours. Occasionally, blister formation may take place in the mouth and other parts of the gut with which the poison has come in contact. You will remember that Rita had several of these symptoms." "Yes, I do. Suresh probably gave it to her for abortion. But you told me earlier that it has a great - although false - reputation as an aphrodisiac. Has anyone administered it to someone to increase the desire" "Tarun, there is a very interesting case in which a married man Arthur Ford deceptively administered Spanish fly powder in coconut candies to two female colleagues, both of whom had earlier spurned his advances. He approached a pharmacist he knew personally to provide him with some cantharidin. It was used in those days in some lotions, so it was usually available with pharmacists. He gave the reason as administration to a neighbor's rabbits which were not breeding fast enough! Although the pharmacist was known to him, he refused to oblige. Ford returned during the lunch hour when the pharmacist was absent and stole some cantharidin. With a pair of scissors he inserted the powder in coconut candies and gave it to his female colleagues. His idea was to increase their desire, so that they may come running to him in his arms, but quite predictably both of them died and Ford got six years in jail! This celebrated case of Spanish fly poisonings occurred in UK in 1954. But about two centuries earlier another famous case occurred..." "What was that case doctor? Please tell me about it." "Tarun this case is most interesting. It is a very long and interesting one, but I shall tell you only the gist. On Saturday, 27 June 1772, the notorious French sex pervert Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) with the help of his valet Latour, arranged for four French prostitutes to gather at a place where he wanted to have fun with them...." "Sorry to interrupt you doctor, but isn't he the same man after whom the word Sadism has been coined?" "Yes, you are right Tarun. Although de Sade was a sex pervert, he was a great writer too, and has written such classical books as 120 Days of Sodom, Justine and Juliette. His writings revolved around a single dominant theme: cruelty of every kind performed for the purpose of achieving sexual excitement. This practice was later named "sadism". "Yes, so we were talking about Marquis de Sade...." "Oh yes Tarun. After he had called the prostitutes, he gave them sweet aniseed (saunf) balls laced with Spanish Fly, in the belief that it would "set them on fire". Later on the same day evening he met another - the fifth- prostitute and repeated the same practice with her. She as well as one of the earlier 4 prostitutes started having incessant and uncontrollable vomiting. You might wonder why the other girls did not get poisoned. Well, they had secretly dropped the sweets on the floor after suspecting something black at the bottom. A written complaint of poisoning was formally lodged on Tuesday, 30 June 1772. The investigating officer was Jean-Pierre Chomel, Lieutenant Général criminel at the Seneschal's Court in Marseille. He collected the sample of vomit and sent it for chemical analysis to two toxicologists, André Rimbaud and Jean-Baptiste Joseph Aubert. The first suspicion was that the poison was arsenic. We have already discussed about this poison in our last meeting. It may be interesting to note that in 1772, the methods of chemical analysis of poisons were extremely primitive, the first reliable chemical test of note for any poison being developed in 1836 for arsenic." "Yes, we talked about that last time. That was the Marsh test. Were these toxicologists able to detect cantharidin from the vomitus?" "No, they used very primitive methods, which could not determine the nature of the poison. The maximum they could say was that it was neither arsenic nor corrosive sublimate, the two poisons known in those times to cause severe vomiting." "This means that de Sade and Latour must have gone scot free." "Tarun, as we discussed in our very first meeting, in those times poisoning was considered a very grave offense, and the tendency of the authorities was to punish the suspects irrespective of the presence of evidence. The failure to detect poison did not, therefore, deter the legal authorities. Police teams were dispatched to arrest both de Sade and Latour, but they had fled. On 3 September the same year, despite the absence of both Marquis de Sade and his valet, the case was brought to trial. Both de Sade and his valet were found guilty of poisoning and sodomy. They were sentenced in absentia. The Marquis de Sade was to have his head struck off while Latour was to be hanged or strangled by the public executioner. Afterwards their bodies were to be burnt and the ashes scattered. However as both of them could not be caught, their straw effigies were hanged on 12 September 1772. For an utterly wrong belief, two innocent girls were in agony for almost a week, and almost lost their lives. This case occurred almost two and a quarter centuries back. But it is indeed unfortunate that Spanish fly still enjoys a reputation as an aphrodisiac and figures largely in lavatorial jokes and bawdy ballads. Its use is to be actively discouraged. "Yes, surely it must. But doctor, in the second case, which occurred in 1954, doctors must have been able to detect the poison quite successfully?" "Tarun, it is interesting to note that although almost two centuries had elapsed between the two cases, the advances in knowledge and technique brought about during this period still seemed scarcely sufficient for the task of solving it. The chemical analysis of the poison in Arthur Ford's case was done by Dr. Lewis C. Nickolls, director of the Metropolitan Police Laboratory at New Scotland Yard. He also could not find an infallible chemical test for it. He concluded that there were only three ways in which one could arrive at a positive identification for cantharidin: by its melting point; by the X-ray diffraction pattern obtained from its crystals; and by the standard observation that, when cantharidin is applied to human skin, pain and blistering are produced. But these tests can not be called ideal. For instance, applying cantharidin to skin can be dangerous....." "Really? How? Tell me doctor." "Tarun, in 1953- just one year before the notorious Arthur Ford case- an important case of accidental death with Spanish Fly had occurred, in which the poison seeped through the skin. A keen 43-year old fisherman had managed to obtain some cantharidin, believing it would attract fish...." "It is indeed remarkable how such bizarre beliefs have centered around Spanish Fly. Isn't it doctor?" "Yes, sure, and all of them are wrong. Well, we were talking about that fisherman. After shaking up the powder with water, he stopped the mouth of the bottle with his thumb, and then, within minutes, unfortunately pricked his thumb with one of his fish hooks. Within half an hour he was ill, within three days dead. This shows that the drug can penetrate broken skin, and possibly unbroken skin too, with toxic if not fatal results." "Oh, that certainly is most interesting. Doctor what have you found in the post-mortem of Rita?" "Tarun, Rita's mouth showed blisters, which at once made me suspicious about Spanish Fly. The whole alimentary tract from the mouth downwards is inflamed. You can see it is completely injected with blood. But the finding that has nabbed Suresh is the presence of bright green particles in Rita's stomach and intestines..." "Oh, yes sure. I can see bright metallic green particles sticking on the walls of stomach. Are there more clues doctor?" "Oh yes there are, but none as specific as the finding of green particles in the stomach. You can see that the kidneys and ureters are congested. The uterus is congested and it shows a fetus about 2 months of age. It is almost sure that Suresh administered Spanish Fly to abort this fetus to save her from the ignominy of childbirth before marriage." "Great, let us go and tell about this to the police." "Oh, I have already done that Tarun, and have instructed the police specifically to look for some bright metallic green powder in his possession. I knew that if this powder is found in his possession, Suresh's lawyers would find it very difficult to save him. And do you know what? Police specifically looked for this powder and has actually been able to locate it in one of the shelves of his house. Had I not informed them about it, they would probably have left it untouched. So Forensic medicine has indeed been able to nab Suresh." " Oh, Great, and thank you doctor for telling me about such an interesting poison. What are you going to tell me the next time?" "Tarun, next time I shall tell you about Boron, which as you shall see is a very important poison. "