One of the major corroborative evidences in the case were the bite marks on the victim's body which the Special Investigating Team (SIT) had collected during the probe. While most substantial evidences including the victim's clothes were DNA-tested in the national capital, Dr Ashit B Acharya from Puttur in Dakshina Kannada assisted the investigating agency in conclusively establishing the culprits' involvement in the case.
Dr Acharya, who heads the dental forensic science laboratory in SDM Dental College in Dharwad, was able to link bite marks on the victim's body with the dental models of accused Ram Singh and Akshay Thakur. The Delhi court also relied on the report sent by the laboratory at the dental college.
The SDM College of Dental Sciences and Hospital at Sattur in Dharwad is the only institution in the country which has a Department of Forensic Odontolgy and a state-of-the-art dental forensic laboratory. Maintaining top secrecy as the case was sensitive, the SIT had opted for this laboratory to test the bite marks on the victim's body during their investigation. Dr Acharya is the head of the department in this institution.
Dr Acharya was sent photographs and plaster of Paris (PoP) impressions of five bite marks found by SIT on the victim's body, along with PoP dental models of all the five accused in the case. Using the two-dimensional digital dental mark analysis, which is a standard test used in medico-legal cases around the world, he established that Ram Singh's dental model perfectly matched with one of the three bite marks on the victim's left cheek, and Akshay Thakur's dental model with one of the two marks found on the abdomen.
Speaking to Coastaldigest.com, Dr Acharya said that he had also been to Delhi to clarify some doubts which the SIT had, and also testified before the court during its proceedings. The court accepted the laboratory's 12-page detailed analysis report in total while declaring the accused guilty in the case, he said.
The entire process of bringing the evidence, matching the bite marks with dental models and sending the findings in an analysis report to the court had been kept a closely guarded secret till the accused were convicted for murder. A police inspector-rank officer from the Special Investigating Team had personally brought the evidence to the college laboratory. It is learnt that he has stayed in the college guest house till the analysis was completed.
Barring the principal of the college Dr Srinath Thakur and Dr Acharya, no one had known why the SIT official from Delhi had arrived and what kind of analysis Dr Acharya had been doing.
Mixed feelings'
While Dr Srinath said that it was a matter of pride for the college as it was able to assist the top investigating agency in proving the role of the accused in the heinous crime, Dr Acharya has mixed feelings about his role in establishing the crime. Though he is glad because he was able to facilitate the course of justice, he wished that the young medico had survived.
Dr Srinath Thakur told Coastaldigest.com that theirs was the only college in the country to have a Forensic Dental department with an advanced forensic dental science laboratory. The Government of Karnataka has recognised the laboratory as state government reference centre for analysis in forensic dental science. Since the establishment of the Department of Forensic Odontology in the institution, several medico-legal cases have come for testing and analysis to be done at the laboratory, he said, adding that he was extremely happy that the institution had helped in establishing the role of the accused in the Delhi case.
Apart from bite marks, the laboratory can also establish the age and sex of persons based on skull testing.
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