Evidence Receiving Unit set-up to facilitate LEAs

National Forensic Science Agency (NFSA) has established an Evidence Receiving Unit (ERU) to ensure accuracy and facilitate Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) in submitting samples for biological tests. The samples are submitted to ERU which scrutinizes and sent them to NFSA laboratory for biological tests, a senior official at the Agency said.
The official told APP here on Monday that NFSA is playing an integral role in the criminal justice and is supporting law enforcement agencies in conducting the biological tests and striving to connect crime scene and judicial system through development of delivery of impartial expert scientific opinion evidence.
He said after issuing guidelines to police and concerned agencies for collection, packaging and submission of biological samples taken from crime scenes, the NFSA has also established a dedicated helpline no. 051-9267685. The official said now police and other LEAs before sending samples can call at helpline where NFSA staff facilitates them and provides them guidance so that accuracy could be maintained.
"Our basic objective is secrecy, accuracy and speed. The samples are dispatched to NFSA laboratory and after conducting tests sent back to concerned agencies," the official said. Responding to a question, he said, Australian government has provided Genetic Analyser Machine (GAM) worth 0.25 million Dollar to NFSA which would enhance forensic capacity and to combat crimes.
Besides providing GAM, specialised training would also be provided to officers of the Agency as part of a Forensic Biology and DNA course in Australia, he added. "Strategies are being developed to enhance forensic capacity of Pakistani agencies through a series of training courses for Pakistani forensic scientists to be held in Australia, commencing from next month and continuing until 2013," he said while replying to another question. Expressing thanks to Australian government, he said now Pakistan has become the second country in the region which has state-of-the-art Genetic Analyser that would help combat crimes.