India's first private forensic laboratory with a wide range of services, including DNA testing, has been set up in Hyderabad to ease the burden on agencies solving crimes.

"Truth Labs is an independent initiative, set up with a pool, to help solve disputes and litigations of various nature without these being referred to the police or courts," retired inspector general of police of Andhra Pradesh K P C Gandhi said.

Gandhi told PTI that Truth Labs offers services like DNA testing, fingerprints comparison, computer crime analysis, document and handwriting examination, psychological evaluation and chemical examination of evidence.

"Such high-end services are currently available with a few government laboratories in the country," he said adding, there was a need for private forensic labs as they help ease the huge burden on law enforcement agencies.

Gandhi pioneered the establishment of Andhra Pradesh Forensic Science Laboratory, the first in the country to be awarded ISO 9001 certification, and launched 'Crime Stoppers' initiative, which collects information from the public for passing on to police and other government agencies.

Truth Labs, he said, could help tackle the growing economic frauds by making use of latest forensic techniques.

"There are lot of cases which need not always go to the police or courts. Typically, any cheating case takes a few years to be solved if it goes to the police or courts while we will give the report in 24 hours," he claimed.

Gandhi said private laboratories could substantially reduce the burden on public laboratories if they acquire advanced technical equipment.

"Many forensic labs are not able to clear the workload in the given time. Today, except a few like the Andhra Pradesh Forensic Science Laboratory, many take years to give their reports," he said.

He said technologies were not upgraded although DNA testing was very important for identification of human beings, "it is not available in many labs even after 10 years of its introduction in India."

Gandhi said cyber crimes were increasing, but "we don't have enough labs to deal with these" and the laboratory would help in easing the load since the "are admissible in courts."

Truth Labs has a number of retired senior government officials and eminent jurists as members of its experts, advisory and executive boards.

"All the experts who have joined this pool have already been certified, qualified, trained, accredited and have already given expert opinion in most parts of the country," he said.

It would soon have zonal offices in New Delhi, Chennai, Chandigarh and Manipur under the control of retired professionals, he added. 

Source: Many Online Sources / New Papers. Rediffnews.