Houses for Dharamsala lab staff

Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 3

The Regional Forensic Science Laboratory (RFSL), Northern Range, Dharamsala, has become the first regional laboratory in the country to have its own residential complex for staff. The lab caters to Kangra, Chamba and Una districts.

The RFSL became functional in 2008 and comprises three divisions — biology and serology, chemistry and toxicology and document and photography. It has received, examined and reported 18,388 crime cases till date.

Forensic experts have visited and examined 812 scenes of crime and deposed expert testimony in courts in 355 cases since 2009. The RFSL also imparts training to judicial, prosecution and police officials of Himachal and has emerged as a satellite centre for the Cyber Crime Prevention Against Women and Children (CCPWC) scheme of the Union Ministry of Home.

The residential complex, constructed at a cost of Rs 3.5 crore at Sidhbari, near Dharamsala, was recently inaugurated by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur. Last year in November, he had also inaugurated the DNA block of the laboratory, facilitating analysis and reporting of crime cases from the northern range.

The state will soon have two mobile forensic units at Nurpur in Kangra district and Baddi in Solan district to enable forensic experts to reach the crime spot at the earliest and gather forensic and physical evidences and provide lead to investigating agencies. An announcement in this regard was made by the Chief Minister in his budget speech of 2019-20.