Types of Documents in Forensic Examination (By Ms. Megha Walia, Assistant Prof. SGT University)

 Types of Document

 

Any writing surface containing invisible, partially visible or visible matter or writing strokes and convey certain meaning can be defined as document. 

 

·       Forensic documents can be classified into two categories i.e. 

 

(i)                      Disputed documents or questioned documents or     

suspected documents and

 

(ii)                     Standard documents.  

 

The disputed documents are the documents which are under scrutiny and are of unknown origin. 

 

The standard documents are the documents of known origin.  Standard documents can again be sub-divided into two categories.

 

(a)            Specimens or sample writings/signatures and are obtained by the I.O. from the suspect or accused in presence of witnesses or before the court

 

(b)           Admittedly genuine writings/signatures are normal writings written by the accused in routine course of business.

 

Questioned Documents are further included in the following classes:

 

Ø  Document with questioned signatures.

Ø  Document containing alleged fraudulent alterations.

Ø  Questioned Holograph documents

Ø  Disputed or Questioned age of dates in documents.

Ø  Question of materials from which documents are produced

 

·      Questioned Documents are further included in                                               

     Following classes:

 

Ø  Questioned Documents including typewriting’s (ascertaining source, date, alteration or substitution of pages)

Ø  Documents with questioned handwritings includes:

 

ü  Anonymous and suicidal notes/disputed letters.

ü  Superscriptions, registrations and other miscellaneous writings.

Ø  Genuine documents erroneously or fraudulently attacked.

 

1.     Document with questioned signatures.

ü  These are most common disputed documents may be commercial or legal papers such as cheques , note , receipt , draft  order , contract , agreement , assignment , will , deed etc.

ü  Signatures are generally obtained by tracing or simulating or copying process.

ü  Beside writing characteristics, ink examination is also very important. 

 

2.     Document containing alleged fraudulent alterations.

 Alterations are made by

ü  Erasures:- Chemical or mechanical

ü  Additions

ü  Interlineations or substitution 

ü  Sequence of strokes is also important to be examined in such cases.

3.     Questioned Holograph documents

ü  These may include rare stamps, valuable manuscripts, certificates, letter of introduction and recommendation, letters of credit, letters of famous people etc.

ü  Scrutiny includes examination of Paper & Watermarks 

         Ink, Writing, Seal impressions & Folds etc. 

 

4.     Disputed or Questioned age of dates in documents.

ü  These types of documents include which are purported to be ancient documents of great importance.

ü  Use of instrument for writing and origin of paper are most important for examination. 

 

5.     Question of materials from which documents are produced.

ü  A document dated many years before the paper was made comes under this category. (or when relative age of the document is required to be decided)

 

6.     Questioned Documents including typewriting (ascertaining source , date , alteration or substitution of pages)

 

7.     Documents with questioned handwritings include:

ü  Anonymous letters and disputed suicidal notes.

ü  Superscriptions , registrations and other miscellaneous writings.

 

         Beside examination of paper , writings or instrument used for writing Forensic Stylistics also plays an important role to identify the writer.

 

8.     Genuine documents erroneously or fraudulently attacked.

           Sometimes writer , at his command , writes more than one pattern of signature or some of the characters in writing in a document may be treated as questioned document erroneously.

 

 

Bank Documents

·      Drafts, cheques, gift cheques.

·      Account opening forms , specimen signature cards 

·      Share Certificates

·      Bank Securities 

·      Time Deposit / Fixed Deposit Receipts 

Bonds

 Postal Documents

·      National Saving Certificates , Kisan Vikas Patra, Indira Vikas Patra 

·      Fixed Deposit / Time Deposit Receipts

·      Money Order forms & Cheques

·      Envelopes / Inland letters

·      Postal Stamps / Revenue stamps 

 

 Educational Documents

·      Degree / Diploma certificates

Marks sheets

Transfer certificates

Date of Birth Certificate

Question papers / Answer sheets of important competitive examinations

Registration / migration certificate

 

 Court Documents

Bail orders 

Release orders

 Judicial / Non-Judicial Stamp papers

Important Judgments of the apex courts

 

 Police Documents

Vehicle registration certificates

Driving licenses

Firearm licenses

 I-Cards 

Security Passes

 First Information Report formats

 Non-Cognizable Report formats

 

 Government Documents

Important agreements

Memorandum of understanding 

Reports / Inspection reports / Postmortem reports / expert reports

Recommendations

Service Books 

 ACR formats 

Cash books

Railway tickets / air tickets 

Insurance Policies

                        

 

 

Forensic Science as a Career Option

 

In present scenario, as the crime is increasing day by day, there is an immense need of a discipline that could teach the youngsters that how to detect and prevent the crime happening in the society. For this particular purpose, they have to have the specialized knowledge of the subject that could be applied to overcome all these problems rising day by day; therefore, the Forensic Science comes into the Scene. 

What Forensic Science is all about?

Forensic Science is basically the application of various scientific principles and techniques in terms of law for the purpose of Justice. The Forensic Science is that branch of science that deals with investigation, collection, examination, analysis and comparison of the evidences encountered at the scene of crime. The physical evidences are all those evidences that are encountered at a particular scene of crime. These may include fingerprints, footprints, blood, hair, fibre, semen, saliva, trace elements etc.

Need & Scope of Forensic Science

With the rising number of incidents of crime and fraud all over the world, the scope of 
forensic science is definitely rising. Today there is an immense need of Forensic personals both in the Government as well as Private Sector. The Police labs, Crime Branches, CID, Investigation Bureau, Defense/Army, Courts, Narcotics Department, Universities, Detective Agencies, Banks, Insurance Companies and other Multi National Companies are hiring the services of the Forensic Scientists. Apart from this one can even engage himself/herself in private practice and can work as a freelance forensic expert for the banks, insurance companies, individual clients and other law enforcement agencies. Forensic Experts having expertise in different fields like 

Fingerprint, Handwriting, Ballistics, Toxicology, Odontology, Crime Scene Investigation and such others can collect clues from the crime scene and elsewhere and can convert them into evidences to prove a crime or to solve a case. 

Education & Career Prospects in Forensic sciences

To opt a career in Forensic science one has to have the science background as most of the areas of Forensic science are the application of various branches of science in solving a crime and analyzing the evidences. Therefore, the one who is having a science background can make his/her career in Forensic Science. 

The candidates who want to make their career in forensic science can opt for any specialization from General Forensics, Forensic Anthropology, Forensic dentistry, Crime Scene Investigation, Questioned Document & Handwriting Examination, Fingerprint Science, Forensic Toxicology, Forensic Biology and Serology, Forensic Ballistics & Explosives etc. 

Several Universities including Amity University, providing both theoretical and practical knowledge to the students in various aspects of forensic science like crime scene investigation, crime scene photography, collection and examination of the physical evidences etc.

How one can be a good forensic scientist?

a.    He has to be keen observer as he has to visit the crime scene and look for the evidences so an unskilled person may overlook certain evidences but a skilled forensic scientist will observe the crime scene thoroughly and will try to gather more and more information.

b.    He must be methodical with research skills and thorough in his investigations. 

c.     He has to have Patience as many of the cases may take lot of his time just to reach a conclusion. Sometimes a forensic scientist has to analyze the evidence again and again and perform his investigation several time to look for more clues and corroborative evidences.

d.    He has to have the basic knowledge of all scientific areas and also have the skills to apply different scientific discipline in the investigation of crime and examination of the evidences

e.    The detective view and solving skills are very important for a forensic scientist.

f.      And lastly he has to have good communication skills as he has to opine in the court of law so he is to be able to explain the findings clearly to lawyers, jurors and the public. 

There are many new emerging areas in forensic science that includes Forensic Psychology, Forensic Paleontology, Forensic Genomics, Tele forensics, Forensic Accountancy, Forensic Archeology, Digital Forensic, Cyber Forensics etc.

Job Prospects for Forensic Scientists

A forensic scientist can work as a freelance forensic expert and can give his opinion in various areas of forensic science to court, lawyers and detectives, they can work in Govt. Forensic Science Laboratories on various posts, they can work as freelance Questioned Document and Fingerprint expert etc. Also they can work in banking and insurance sectors. All in all in present scenario the Forensic Scientists are in great demand to solve a large number of cases and to combat this requirement, Govt. is taking action to open more and more institutions to provide the degrees and training in the area of Forensic Science. The candidate can opt this booming area and can make career in this ocean of investigation. The Job market is very good in this booming area but one has to keep in mind that he can also be a freelance expert and can earn more in the area than a Job.

By,

Dr. Bhoopesh Kumar Sharma

Associate Professor, Forensic Science

Forensic Expert

Uses of Mobile Application in Crime Scene Investigation

Generally, crime scene is a place where the crime occurred. Crime scene reporting is an integral part of investigation and reconstruction. An Investigating Officer normally documents the crime scene with the help of photography, recording, sketching, and notes taking. Measurements for the overall crime scene and the documentation for permanent records, trial review, and crime reconstruction will be taken during crime scene sketching. Usually, measurement taking is a tedious task and time consuming as well. It requires much effort and several personals involvement.

Below, I would like to mention that in one of the study, how successfully I have used mobile applications in IoS, and Android to measure the crime scene and the evidences. This was done in a more sophisticated way and was way easier than the traditional measuring tape method. 

The accuracy of smartphone applications for crime scene measurements has not been analyzed widely so far. Previously few works have been done on MobileCSITM by Siamese Systems. In some previous studies researchers have implemented a series of difficulty metrics for the visual appearance of a user interface. Consumer analysis with several mobile apps to assess the quality of the metrics has been performed.

This blog is all about, where we created a mock crime scene to simulate the actual crime scene (please see the figure below). The evidences were well marked for the purpose of identification, and several photographs using close up lenses, and aerial photography were also taken. After which, we have started the measurements. There were three series of measurements taken as:

1. Traditional Measurement Tape Method.

2. Measurements by Android Application ‘Tape MeasureTM’

3. Measurements by Apple application ‘Measure’ 

Simulated Crime Scene

The statistical testing is used to check whether there is a significant difference between the means of samples of different measurements taken i.e., manual Tape Measure and mobile application methods that can be attributed to specific characteristics. Below are some of the images taken during the measurements:

Crime Scene measurement by manual tape method.

Below image shows one of the example of the measurement by Android application:

Crime Scene measurement by mobile application ‘Tape MeasureTM’

Below image shows one of the example of the measurement by IoS application:

Crime Scene measurement by mobile application ‘MeasureTM’

As detailed earlier, that statistical analysis (t-test) was performed to see the accuracy of the applications as shown in the table below:

This is just an example, full article link is given below

Conclusion: Accurate measurements of the evidence on the crime scene is a crucial activity to be done by the investigating officer or on the spot by the forensic experts themselves. This helps to better investigate the crime, create the modus operandi, the corpus delicti and helps to reconstitute the crime. The traditional method is quiet time consuming, required number of officials and have chances to misplace the evidences. After the thorough analysis of both the mobile applications considered i.e. Tape MeasureTM and MeasureTM it was found that both the applications are moreover better than the traditional measuring tape method, however, consideration should be given to select the accurate point of measurements in the application, correct position of the mobile camera, stableness of the mobile camera, and angle of photography selected.