• Author / Uploaded
• Livanshu Garg

Citation preview

!1

UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF LEGAL STUDIES ———————————————————————————————

———————————————————————————————

FORENSIC SCIENCE PROJECT Clothing Personal ———————————————————————————————

Submitted to: Dr. Ajay Ranga Ph.D. (Law), LL.M., LL.B., B.A(Law) Assistant Professor University Institute of Legal Studies

Submitted By: Livanshu Garg 152/14 Exam Roll No. 12629 B.Com.Ll.B.(Hons.) — 9th Semester Section C

!2

Acknowledgement I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my teacher Dr. Ajay Ranga who gave me the golden opportunity to do project on the topic Clothing Personal, which also helped me in doing a lot of Research and I came to know about so many new things. I am really thankful to them. Secondly I would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in finishing this project within the limited time.

— Livanshu Garg

!3

Table of Contents Acknowledgement

2

Table of Contents

3

Introduction

4

Forensic Anthropology

4

Forensic Identification

4

Personal Identification

5

Introduction

5

Chief Characteristics of Identification

6

Identification by Personal Clothing

7

Introduction

7

Detailed description and marks

8

Personal effects for identification

10

Characteristics and types of clothing

10

• Gender Clothing

10

• Religious clothing

11

• Regional Clothing

11

Observations

11

Bibliography

12

Books Referred

12

Research Papers Referred

12

Websites referred

12

!4

Introduction Forensic Anthropology Forensic Anthropology is defined as the application of science of physical anthropology to the legal process. The term “forensic” refers to the gathering of scientific physical evidence for use in a court of law and “anthropology” is the study of behaviour, origin, and physical and social development of humans. Thus, Forensic Anthropology is the use of anthropology to gather and examine scientific evidence. Forensic anthropologists use a blend of sciences, such as biology, chemistry, physics, anatomy, criminology, medical jurisprudence and forensic medicine to aid in the investigation of crimes.1

Forensic anthropology primarily perceives and explains the theories on personal identification, assess the difficulties and relevance of personal identification in a multicultural and biologically heterogeneous context, follow correctly the procedures of personal identification through anthropological methods and techniques, estimate correctly the age, sex and time of death of person(s) involved, predict the identity of an individual to his/her socio-cultural, ethnic, caste, tribal group, based on various cultural and biological markers and employ anthropological concepts and techniques in establishing identities through skeletal, fragmentary and decomposed remains. Thus Forensic Identification or Personal identification is the mainstay of Forensic investigation.2

Forensic Identification Forensic identification is the subfield of forensic anthropology. It is the process of applying scientific methods to identify humans or products for use inside a courtroom. The definition of the term “forensics” is “for the courts”. Therefore, one of the main purposes of forensic identification is to preserve evidence and the findings that can be drawn from the crime scene or the scene of an accident for use in a courtroom.3 1

K. Kapoor and Sangeeta Dey, "Establishment of Partial and Complete Identity from Decomposed and Mutilated Bodies", available at : http://epgp.inflibnet.ac.in/epgpdata/uploads/epgp_content/anthropology/07._forensic_anthropology/ 05.__establishment_of_complete_or_partial_identity_from_decomposed_or_mutilated_bodies/et/8363_et_et_5.pdf (Last visited 20th October 2018) 2

ibid.

3

ibid.

!5

Personal Identification Introduction Identity means the determination of the individuality of a person. Article 6 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. Therefore, every citizen of a member State of the United Nations has a right to possess his personal identity, unquestioned. In India, Unique Identification Authority of India has been established in February 2009. It is part of the Planning Commission of India. The Authority will aim to provide a unique number to all Indians. As the scheme gets fully operational, every citizen in India will get UID card that will establish his identity containing several details that could be accessed through a central data bank.4

The question of personal identity is of course a crucial one in the detection and prosecution of crime. In proving this, the law has always relied a good deal on the testimony of eye witnesses.

The proof of identity can be regarded from two quite different standpoints. From one, the problem is to describe, measure and classify physical bodily characteristics with such exactitude that, if the same data apply to A—B— and C—D—, they must be the same person. From the other, the problem is to identify an individual from personal traces which he has left behind at the scene of the crime.5

Personal identification is the process of establishing the identity of any individual whether living or dead. In living, identification is important in cases of amnesia, unconscious, imposters, issue of identity cards, passports, driving license, legal documents etc. Identification in living is done by the law enforcement agencies to identify perpetrators of crime through trace evidence such as bloodstains, hair, foot/shoe print, fingerprint, bite marks, etc. In few cases by knowing the function such as speech, handwriting, gait, voice etc recognition of living can be done.6

4

Mathiharan and Amrit K Patnaik (Ed.), Modi’s Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology 211 (LexisNexis, Buttersworth, 24th Edition 2011) 5

H.J. Wells, Forensic Science 127 (Universal Law Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd, 2nd Indian Reprint 2008)

Twisha Maulesh Shah, "Development of the new scientific methods in forensic anthropology and its implementation for personal identification", available at: http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/106860/10/10_chapter%201.pdf (last visited on 20th October 2018) 6

!6

In cases of natural mass disasters like earthquakes, cyclone, floods, tsunamis, etc., or man-made like aircraft disaster, bomb blast, terrorist attacks, murders, victims of war crime etc where the unidentified body or bodies (either dismembered or decomposed or intact body) are in question, the need to identify the identity of an individual is essential for social as well as medico-legal purpose. Personal identification of an unknown deceased is important for both legal as well as on humanitarian grounds. It is important legally for matters related to wills, inheritance, insurance policies, and prosecution of homicides, detection of fraudulent deaths, estate, debts, accident reconstruction and remarriage. Morally it is essential for closure and declaration by surviving relations and friends. Also accurate identification of dead is required for personal and religious, completion of official records and burial or cremation purpose.7

Identification can be categorised into two types:

1. Complete or Absolute Identification: Complete identification implies the absolute fixation of the personality of, and the determination of the exact place in the community occupied by the individual.

2. Incomplete or partial Identification: Partial identification means ascertainment of only some sort of facts about the identity such as race, age, sex, stature while others are still remain unknown.8

Chief Characteristics of Identification The chief personal characteristics which can be used for identification arc:

(1) hair colour; (2) voice; (3) general appearance; (4) the shapes, shapes and arrangement of the teeth and bones, (5) fingerprints; (6) blood groups. Hair colour is separated here from general appearance because a man can leave his hairs behind, but not the shape of his cars.) Any or all of these categories may be invoked in proving identity from the first standpoint described above; obviously, however, only (1), (4) sometimes, (5) and (6) can be used to identify a person by the traces he leaves behind him.9 7

ibid.

8

Supra Note 1

9

Supra Note 5

!7

Clothi ng

Identification by Personal Clothing Introduction Clothes and personal articles do not form any essential piece of evidence in the identification of a living person, as the individual can change them at his will. However, they are very valuable in establishing the identification of a dead body, particularly in mass disasters.

It is therefore, necessary to preserve them along with any articles, such as watch, bracelet, visiting cards, diaries, driving license, keys, spectacles, purse, jewellery, etc found on a dead body or lying in its vicinity for the purpose of future identification. The clothes should be examined carefully for the presence of the name of the owner or tailor or the mark of dhobi (washerman) on any of them. 10

10

Supra Note 4 at 273

!8

Detailed description and marks Clothing may be distinctive, and a detailed description may be obtained from the relative or someone who had last seen the deceased. Moreover, there may be clues in the clothing itself such as laundry mark, maker's tag or dyer's mark(s), etc. The clothes should better be examined under ultraviolet light so as to appreciate apparently invisible ink-marks.11

In the Kakori Conspiracy case, one of the accused was identified by means of a bed-sheet found in his possession, as it had the marks of the dhobi employed in a hotel in Lucknow, where he was alleged to have stayed for some time.12

Clothing may also provide a clue to the social status and occupation of the individual. Bullet holes/defects (with or without deposits of soot, powder grains, etc.), cuts or tire impressions may yield information regarding the cause and manner of death. Disarranged clothing, missing button(s), stains due to poison, vomit, faecal matter, blood, semen, saliva, etc., suggest nature of assault that can be helpful in further identification. 13

Garments may retain various types of evidence that have been deposited onto them in a wide variety of ways, most importantly during the crime event. Clothing items are one of the most commonly encountered exhibits in crimes of violence. Generally, crimes are committed while the participants are clothed (although not always, notably some sexual offences). Consequently, that clothing may reflect the nature, the location, or the participants in the crime. Clothing cannot literally speak to the examiner, so clothing is not “direct” evidence. However, garments may contain physical evidence relating to the crime and in an indirect way provide information relating to the circumstances. In this manner, we can consider that clothing “speaks” to the examiner.14

11

Krishan Vij, Textbook of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology: Principles & Practice 52 (Elsevier India, 5th Edition 2011)

12

Supra Note 4 at 273

13

Supra Note 11

Jane Moira Taupin and Chesterene Cwiklik, Scientific Protocols for FORENSIC EXAMINATION OF CLOTHING 1 (CRC Press, Florida, USA, 2010) 14

!9

One Mrs. Rahmat had been pushed by the accused into the canal by the bridge. When her body was taken out and sent for post mortem examination it was found to be too far decomposed for any thorough examination. None of her relatives and friends saw the corpse and a photograph of it was so bad so as to be impossible for identification. On the corpse, however, there were certain earrings and garments including ghagra and those were identified as belonging to the deceased. The court relied on the identification of clothes especially of a ghagra. Having regard to the fact that the corpse found tallied the height and age with the description of Mrs. Rahmat. The accused was convicted charge for murder and sentenced to imprisonment for life.15

Where it is satisfactorily proved that the clothes found on the corpse were worn the deceased before disappearance, even if the corpse is in highly decomposed state, difficult to be identified, it can be held that the corpse is that of a person who had disappeared.16

A village shoemaker, who makes one or two pair of shoes a week for various persons in the village, cannot identify one pair of these shoes from another.17

The clothes should also be examined for the presence of bullet-holes, cuts or rents or for the presence of blood, seminal or other stains. If debris or dust of organic or mineral matter is found clinging to the clothes or in the pockets or turn-ups of trousers, it should be collected and submitted to microscopic examination, as it might give some indications of the business of the person. Techniques of improved spectrometry and activation analysis are also useful.18

15

Ihsami v Emperor 1923 Lah 40 : (1924) 25 CrLJ 783.

16

Gul Hassan v Emperor, 11 CrLJ 604, 8 Ind Cas 250 (Punj).

17

Meher Singh v Emperor, AIR 1935 Lah 805 at 806 (DB).

18

Supra Note 4 at 274

!10

Personal effects for identification Pocket contents like papers, letters, keys, license/identity card, diary, passport, etc., often provide the initial evidence that usually leads to positive identification. In a series of exhumations of allied war crime victims following the Second World War, over one-third of the bodies were identified by laundry marks and personal effects; although in several cases efforts had been made to conceal the identity of the deceased.

However, a person might have been clothed in borrowed garments or second-hand clothes and rarely, a body may be deliberately clothed in another's attire and documents/articles, etc., placed in the pockets in order to mislead the investigative agencies. All the pocket contents must be carefully recorded, preserved and handed over to the police in a sealed parcel.19

Characteristics and types of clothing Clothing proves to be a parameter to identify race as styles of clothing reflect the customs or traditions or rituals of the various races to a certain extent. Clothing differs from gender to gender, place to place, region to region, religion to religion, etc. Even though such differences are not full proof but a basic identification can be drawn from the clothing of a person.

• Gender Clothing There are certain key differences in clothing patterns of males and females in India and such differences can be explained with just one look at the traditional clothing that the piece of clothing is either a male or a female clothing. Females generally wear a Saree, Salwar Suit, Ghagra, etc., with various variations in them whereas males generally wear Pants and Shirts, Kurtas, etc.

But with the coming up of western clothing many of the male and female clothing items have merged in their looks. But in this case also there are some design changes between male and female clothing which can help is distinguish between them. For example in mens shirts the buttons are placed on the right panel

19

Supra Note 11 at 53

!11

whereas in women shirts the buttons are placed on the left panel. Another example that women trousers are designed to fit the legs whereas mens trousers are bit loose than women trousers.

• Religious clothing It is pertinent to note that traditionally people used to wear clothes according to the religion they belonged or subscribed. For example Hindu males wore a mala in their neck and tilak on their forehead, Muslim males wore a skull cap called taqiyah on their heads and similarly Sikh men subscribed to wear a Turban on their heads. Similarly married Hindu females put Sindoor on their foreheads whereas Muslim females subscribed to the use of Burkha in public.

• Regional Clothing Similar to gender and religious clothing pattern of clothing changes from region of habitat. The style of Turban is different in all the states for example Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, UP, etc. Even the style of Dhoti is different in different regions and called by different names. The style of clothing also changes according to the weather of a region for example people liking in Ladakh region wear wooden clothes all year round whereas people living in coastal regions of South India wear breathable cotton clothing.

Observations By a through of the above material it can be said that clothes are useful to identify a person initially because a basic identity of a person can be created only from the type of clothes that person wears. Although it is also pertinent to note that a perfect identity of a person cannot solely be created on the description of their clothes because clothes can be changed and style of other persons can be replicated. There are more robust methods of identification which are more accurate and reliable. Such methods have already been described by me in the figure above.

!12

Bibliography Books Referred 1. Mathiharan and Amrit K Patnaik (Ed.), Modi’s Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology (LexisNexis, Buttersworth, 24th Edition 2011) 2. H.J. Wells, Forensic Science (Universal Law Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd, 2nd Indian Reprint 2008) 3. Krishan Vij, Textbook of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology: Principles & Practice (Elsevier India, 5th Edition 2011) 4. Jane Moira Taupin and Chesterene Cwiklik, Scientific Protocols for FORENSIC EXAMINATION OF CLOTHING (CRC Press, Florida, USA, 2010)

Research Papers Referred 1. K. Kapoor and Sangeeta Dey, "Establishment of Partial and Complete Identity from Decomposed and Mutilated Bodies" 2. Twisha Maulesh Shah, "Development of the new scientific methods in forensic anthropology and its implementation for personal identification"

Websites referred 1. epgp.inflibnet.ac.in 2. shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in