Cops oppose brain mapping

Hyderabad: Though the AP Forensic Science Laboratory and police headquarters are trying to push brain fingerprinting many top police officials on Saturday expressed their apprehensions on the validity of the forensic technique.

During the interaction held at APFSL the CID Additional DG, T Krishna Prasad raised questions over its admissibility as evidence in court. Representatives from the AP Judicial Academy and legal experts from the AP Police Academy said it can be used a corroborative evidence and not as primary one. They said that it is an investigation tool to zero in on suspects but not for convicting the accused.

Top police officials said that the expertise of the investigating official is more important while choosing probes.

The accuracy depends on the investigating official’s selection of material like visuals of the crime scene, murder weapon or words and phrases.

However, if the accused and the investigator has now knowledge of crime hypothetical questions can’t be used. Brain finger printing is based on the fact that the brain generates a unique brain-wave pattern when a person encounters a familiar stimulus.

and this is read in a fraction of second by using electrodes placed on head. A by-stander who witnessed a murder could potentially be implicated as an accused if the test reveals that the said person was familiar with the information related to the same.

Similarly, little is known about the impact of viewing portrayal of crime scene in the media such as television, movies and newspaper on brain mapping.

Hence, this test cannot be used to prosecute an accused but can be used by an innocent as an ‘alibi’ by proving that he/she does not have any memory about the crime on this test.

However Director General of Police B Prasada Rao said ,”Brain mapping helps to identify the criminals and it can be useful. More than Lie Detector and Narco Analysis the lie detector test was a success in abroad. We are thinking over to bring in this technology to the State,”

Former DGP Swaranjit Sen whose agency Swarna Suraksha is trying to promote the equipment said ,”Third degree torture on criminals by the police can be put to an end,”