PU prof gets national award for research

Chandigarh: Dr Vishal Sharma, from Institute of Forensic Science and Criminology, Panjab University (PU), has received Dr PD Sethi Memorial National Award 2017 for his work on “Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) for characterisation and multivariate discrimination of blue ballpoint pen ink for forensic applications”, which was published in Vibrational Spectroscopy journal by Elsevier Science from Netherland.

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 14

Dr Vishal Sharma, from Institute of Forensic Science and Criminology, Panjab University (PU), has received Dr PD Sethi Memorial National Award 2017 for his work on “Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) for characterisation and multivariate discrimination of blue ballpoint pen ink for forensic applications”, which was published in Vibrational Spectroscopy journal by Elsevier Science from Netherland.

The committee selected his paper as the best research paper in the category of “Application of the HPTLC in pharma, herbal and other analysis” from India. This work was the part of the thesis of his PhD student Raj Kumar in the Institute.

“The ink analysis is a key research area of forensic examination to detect forgery or authenticate a legal paper, passports, wills, currency notes, certificates, and other official documents,” said Dr Vishal Sharma.

“The objective of ink analysis includes its classification and the comparison of its chemical constituents with other inks, which are similar in appearance. It also ascertains whether two suspected texts are written with the same pens or not,” he added.

“In many legal cases, the ink is key evidence in ascertaining the connection between a forged and genuine document. In establishing an opinion of the case, analysis of substrate (paper) and the writing instrument (pen/pencil) both are equally significant to achieve the authenticity of the received document in forensic laboratories,” he said.

“In cases, where multiple page documents are under examination (such as wills, examination sheets, visa on the passport, bank passbook, and loan agreements), each ink sample is required to be analysed individually in order to determine if they belong to the same or different source,” he added.