Experts lament delay in DNA analysis, officials attribute lag to staff crunch

Even after more than two weeks of accused Aaftab Amin Poonawalas arrest there is no conclusive proof that the body parts recovered in the Mehrauli murder case are that of Shraddha Walkar and a section of experts have raised questions over the delay in DNA profilingPoonawala was arrested on November 12 for allegedly strangulating Walkar in May chopping her body into 35 pieces which he kept in a 300litre fridge for almost three weeks at his Mehrauli residence in South Delhi before dumping them across the city over several daysPolice have reportedly recovered 12 human body parts on November 13 and sent these to a laboratory which is yet to extract the DNA and match it with Walkars family membersAuthorities in the know of things however chose to remain tightlipped on thisWe cannot reveal anything about the body parts found since we have to maintain high secrecy in such cases Assistant PRO at Forensic Science Laboratory Rohini Dr Rajnish Kumar Singh saidTop forensic experts said though it is immaterial to know details about the laboratories involved in this case they highlighted that the delay is inexplicableAccording to them specialists should not ideally take more than 24 hours to ascertain a persons identity from remains even if they are six months oldGyaneshwar Chaubey professor of genetics at Banaras Hindu University is of the view that 24 hours is a good time to extract the DNA from a yearold human remains even if it is in an unpreserved stateAlso Read Shraddha Walkar murder case Accused Aftab Poonawalla taken for polygraph test again amid high securityChaubey was part of the team that solved the 400yearold murder mystery of Georgias Queen Ketevan through DNA analysis in 2021We may not get flesh after six months or a year but bone marrow a tissue found inside the bones survives for more than a year and it makes DNA extraction easy he saidWhen a case of this magnitude can take so much time one can imagine the pace of justice delivery system in relatively less highlighted cases he lamentedThe delay is unfortunate and I propose to the government that it should have a special task force involving the countrys top DNA experts Chaubey addedDr K Thangaraj senior scientist and director Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics CDFD under the Union government said the entire analysis depends upon the quality of samples isolation of DNA from biological remains selection of appropriate DNA markers and most importantly trained manpowerInstitutions like CDFD and the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology CCMB have handled DNA sampling of high profile assassination cases such as that of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and former Punjab chief minister Beant SinghDr Thangaraj himself has worked on DNA sampling of some landmark cases which include solving the mystery of a 4000 to 5000yearold human skeleton belonging to the Indus Valley civilisation at Rakhi Garhi in Hisar HaryanaIn the 1980s and 90s the technology was not so advanced and it used to take about 10 days to generate a DNA profilefingerprint but today generating a DNA profile of fresh samples should not take more than 24 hours he addedHe further said in Walkars case isolating DNA from sixmonthold samples may be challenging but experts who have handled samples of similar nature would not take more than three days to establish the identityForensic scientists in state government labs blamed workload tedious protocol and shortage of skilled workforce for the delayA source at FSL Rohini told PTI that there is a crunch of DNA experts in the lab and at present it is working with half of the required trained workforceThere are about 20 DNA experts who work in seven teams but considering the workload the present strength is 50 per cent less than the required number the source informedDr Rajnish Kumar Singh from FSL Rohini admitted that the laboratory requires more experts However he added that the Delhi government and the Union Home Ministry are working with a definite goal to strengthen forensic infrastructureThe Delhi government is more about forensic services in the capital whereas the Union home ministry is working with a definite goal to strengthen forensic services and promoting maximum use of science and technology in solving criminal cases he saidDr Singh said there is no dearth of experts but hiring them in governmentrun labs is a timeconsuming processWe need to remove several bottlenecks if we want to expedite the hiring process he saidDr Pankaj Srivastava incharge of Biology and Serology Division Regional Forensic Laboratory Bhopal held huge workload as a major factor for the delayNormally according to protocol three to five days are good enough to extract DNA but there is a backlog of more than 1000 such cases in many states So it depends on the priority given to a case he saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability 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