It is not the announcement in the state budget regarding the setting up of the Cyber Crime Centre in Kochi that excites the police force here.
Rather, the officers are more enthusiastic about the new Regional Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) that is expected to come up in Kottayam.
According to the police here, the new regional FSL proposed to be set up in Kottayam will help in speeding up investigations.
“At present, samples from the crime scenes are being examined in the mobile forensic laboratory in Kochi. But in complex cases like murder, the samples are sent all the way to Thiruvananthapuram for examination,” they said.
“Usually, it takes over a month to get the results as the FSL in Thiruvananthapuram has to examine the samples from crime scenes in various districts and the the ones sent by the Crime Branch. Besides, there is a severe shortage of staff at FSL, Thiruvananthpuram, which leads to further delay,” the police said.
With the setting up of the regional forensic laboratory in Kottayam, the samples from Ernakulam, Idukki and Alappuzha districts can be examined there.
This will speed up investigation.
“There will be no delay in examining the samples if there are sufficient staff and the investigation can be completed in time,” the officials said.
Currently, the Kerala police have one forensic laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram. There are two regional forensic laboratories in Kannur and Thrissur.
However, the staff shortage has severely affected the functioning of the these regional laboratories. Mobile units of FSL are functioning in all other districts.
However, the officials in FSL, Thiruvananthapuram, pointed out that two regional laboratories are not fully operational.
Besides setting up new laboratory, the government should seriously give attractive salary to the staff, the officials added.