Crime Laboratory
Boon for the people, bane for the criminals

The crime laboratory for the police helps fight crime and also in the identification of missing persons

by PINAKI DASGUPTA

A relative may be lost. Searches in hospitals, morgues, police stations and other places reveal no results. It is here that the Crime Laboratory of the Detective Branch of Police comes to the rescue. This laboratory is the bane of criminals and a boon to the common people.
Innumerable people are lost in various accidents in the busy capital city every day. The Crime Laboratory now ensures that pictures of the unidentified dead bodies are taken and preserved. The laboratory has in its records photographs of thousands of dead persons taken over the past eleven years.
What used to originally be the photography department of the Detective Branch (DB) was later made into the Crime Laboratory. Previously it ran its activities from a small room in the DB office on Minto Road and didn’t even have any air-conditioning. As a result, the pictures couldn’t be preserved properly. Later when the importance of the photography department was recognized, then steps were taken in 1995 to preserve these photographs. Then in 2005 the digital system was introduced. And in 2006 the photography department became the Crime Laboratory. After 1/11, at the personal initiative of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Nayeem Ahmed, the Crime Department was fully developed.
The Crime Laboratory is situated at the eastern corner of the Detective Branch at Minto Road, alongside the pond there. It has three wings – one for cyber crime, one for criminal records and analysis to preserve the photographs and data of criminals, and one is the photography wing.
The photography wing of the Crime Laboratory has 17 staff members who are in plainclothes. They work tirelessly to preserve the photographs of criminals and unidentified persons. The staff consists of an inspector, a sergeant, an SI and 14 constables. The wings for cyber crime and criminal records and analysis have two Deputy Police Commissioners who head a 20-member team.
Constable Zahirul, who has been with the photography wing for the past decade, says, “Photographs of unidentified bodies at the hospital morgues are collected everyday. All sorts of information pertaining to them are also collected. This includes which police station dealt with the matter, the case number, etc.”
He says, “About three to seven photographs of dead persons come in everyday. Over the past eleven years many people have come to this wing and identified the bodies of their relations. Everyday people come in to look for lost persons. Some find them, some don’t. However, as there is a lack of publicity, many people are not aware of this department.”
Inspector DA Taleb, in charge of the photography wing, says, “Every month about 80 to 100 photographs of unidentified dead bodies are collected here and kept on record. Fingerprints of criminals are also preserved here. Due to the introduction of the digital system, now the photographs can be preserved properly.”
Additional Deputy Police Commissioner of the Detective Branch Masudur Rahman says, “The Crime Laboratory plays a significant role in the identification and arrest of criminals. Even if the criminals are released on bail, they can easily be caught against as their photographs, fingerprints and other details are on record. This will also help other personnel who join the Dhaka Metropolitan Police in future.”
Concerning the photography wing, he says, “This wing does not only preserve photographs of unidentified dead persons, it has pictures of arrested criminals along with their fingerprints. There are plans to expand this further.”
Everyday people are dying in accidents in various places of the city. Not all can be identified and their relations cannot be located. The police send these bodies to the morgues of Dhaka medical College Hospital and Mitford Hospital. They remain there for two or three days. Later these unidentified and unclaimed bodies are handed over to the Anjuman Mufidul Islam.