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SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION - 18
USE OF INFRARED PHOTOGRAPHY IN FORENSIC SCIENCE
-Dr. Anil Aggrawal
Last year I came across a very interesting case. The case related to a businessman Mr. Valecha. He had about 5 Acres of land in NOIDA, on which he wanted to build a factory relating to paper business. Somehow, some financial problems arose and Mr. Valecha could not build a factory immediately after acquiring that land. The land was lying vacant as a result. As there was nobody to look after the land, and also because Mr. Valecha became very complacent, the land remained unguarded for about 2 years. In between those two years Mr. Valecha kept going to Japan to finalize the details of technology transfer relating to paper factory. So perhaps his not visiting the factory site was somewhat justified too. After about 2 years all the deals were finalized and Mr. Valecha was able to acquire a loan of about Rs. 2 crores (crore is a unit of measurement in India equalling 10 million) from the Govt. Now when he reached the site of factory he found that the place had been occupied by one local goon Mahto. He was running some liquor business from there. When Mr. Valecha asked him to vacate the land, he asked him to get lost. This infuriated Mr. Valecha very much and he contacted the police to help him in this matter. Valecha had good contacts in the police and he was sure he could get the things done. Unfortunately for Valecha, Mahto had good contacts too. Not only did he know higher-ups in the police, he had contacts with the Underworld dons too and even with some local influential politicians. It was believed that he was paying regularly something to them, and was always actively engaged in the political campaigns of those leaders. Thus having him moved through local police contacts was not likely to be of much consequence, and that was what actually happened. The local SHO did try his level best in the beginning, but very soon when he realized the enormity of the task he had inadvertently taken, he lost all interest in the case.
There was no option left for Mr. Valecha than to go to court, but this would have taken several years obviously, and Mr. Valecha could not hold on to his Govt. loan till that time. The loan would lapse only after 2 months, if Mr. Valecha could not use that loan till that time. And Valecha did not want the loan to lapse at any cost.
It was under these circumstances that Valecha took a very impetuous decision. Somebody suggested to him that he should strike a deal with Mahto. Perhaps he would take a few lakhs (an indian measure, equal to a hundred thousand) Rupees (Indian currency) and vacate the land himself. Valecha liked this idea and approached Mahto. He had imagined that the deal would be finalized in a few lakh Rupees. He was prepared to pay up to Rs.5 lakhs for having that land vacated. However when he talked with Mahto he was dumbstruck when Mahto kept before him a demand of Rs. 50 lakhs. This was beyond the capacity of Valecha. Try hard as he would, he could not bring Mahto to reduce his demand. Repeated discussions with various representatives of Valecha also did not bring any fruitful results.
Valecha was quite exasperated now. At this stage somebody suggested to him that there was a local goon MunnaLal who could help him. MunnaLal specialized in murder. He would charge a hefty sum from his client and do away with anyone indicated by his client. When MunnaLal was contacted he agreed to kill Mahto for a sum of Rs. one lakh. As Valecha had no other option, he agreed to this.
On May 15, 1993 Valecha gave a phone call to Mahto and told him that he had arranged for Rs. 50 lakhs as desired by him and he could come to Valecha's house any time to collect it. Mahto jumped at the suggestion and replied that he will be there on that very night. The time was fixed for 10 pm. This suited Valecha and MunnaLal, who wanted to do away with Mahto.
Valecha had a plush house in Golf Links area. The house was tastefully decorated. MunnaLal reached Valecha's house at 8 pm sharp. He was a hatchet specialist. He had brought his hatchet with him. The plan was to kill Mahto with the hatchet and then to do away with the body. At 10 pm the door bell rang. Valecha opened the door and found Mahto standing in the doorway. Till now everything was going according to plan.
Mahto was asked to take a seat. He sat on a modular sofa. This is a modern kind of sofa which can be converted into a bed at night. The upholstery on the sofa was of a dark red colour. Mahto took the left side of the sofa. While Valecha engaged Mahto in talks, MunnaLal came from behind and struck hard on Mahto's head. Mahto immediately dropped dead. After this both Valecha and MunnaLal disposed of the body of Mahto by throwing it away in the bushes of the Ridge area.
When the body of Mahto was recovered by the police the next day, they started investigation. Their line of investigation led them to Valecha. When one of Valecha's servants was questioned, he told the whole story to the police. He was present in the house when the incident had taken place.
When the police started building up the case against Valecha, they were quite dismayed to find that the bed on which Mahto was alleged to be sitting did not show any blood stain. This seemed to refute the story given by the servant. But in fact the stains were not visible because the upholstery of the sofa was of red colour. Here the police was in great dilemma. If they showed the normal pictures of the sofa in the court, it would have been extremely difficult for them to convince the judge that a murder had indeed been committed on that sofa, simply because the sofa did not show any blood stain. It was at this point when they approached me for help.
I made use of a special kind of light ray called the infra-red ray. This type of ray can not be seen by the eye, but it can make several invisible things visible. After taking the photograph in infra-red ray exposure, the blood stains were clearly visible. One can see a large patch of blood on the left side of the sofa. The close-up photograph shows many fine areas of blood splashing. The contrast appears dramatic when you compare these two figures with fig.1 which has been taken in normal light. In fig.1, although blood stains are present, they are hardly visible.
The police then got encouraged and asked me to take the photographs of MunnaLal's shirt also. MunnaLal was wearing a black shirt at the time of murder, and police had taken that shirt into custody. But that shirt was not showing any signs of blood, and because of that police had got discouraged very much. But when the same shirt was photographed in infra-red rays, it showed blood stains very clearly.
Thus the infra-red photography helped the police immensely in building up evidence against Valecha and MunnaLal. The honorable court accepted the photographic evidence, and both of them were convicted. This was yet another victory for Forensic Science!
***
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