State forensic laboratory gets registered with Vienna centre

Shimla, November 10

The State Forensic Science Laboratory has been registered with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC),Vienna, Austria. It has also got an invite for participation in the International Collaborative Exercise (ICE) under the International Quality Assurance Programme.

It is the country’’s first lab to have achieved the unique distinction. Seeds for registration with the UNODC were sown during the visit of Director, Forensics Services, Himachal, Dr Arun Sharma to Beijing in September 2018 to attend the 10th annual meeting of the Asian Forensic Science Network (AFSN), where he held discussions with Justice Tettey, Chief, Laboratory and Scientific Section, UNODC, Vienna.

He sought assistance to strengthen the narcotic drug testing facility in Himachal, along with registration of the NDPS division of the state FSL with UNODC and participation in the ICE Programme. The state lab got accreditation from the National Accreditation Board of Testing and Calibration Laboratories in 2018. It emerged as the first lab in the country to become a member of the Asian Forensic Science Network. — TNS