India’s first brain sciences centre for forensic application will be commissioned in Bangalore early next month.

The Centre for Brain Sciences for Forensics (CBSF), directly under the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Delhi, Ministry of Home Affairs, will  be housed in the campus of State Forensic Science Laboratory, Bangalore. It will have the latest technology and will cover all the specialised fields on brain sciences as applied to forensics.

“It will be a highly specialised and technical centre with the latest know how and state-of-the-art equipment. As of now, there’s no one facility for conducting brain mapping, polygraph and narco analysis tests. We have to take the subjects out to government hospitals for conducting these tests. This institute will have all facilities to conduct these and other specialised tests, including electro encephalograph (EEG) and event related potential (ERP),” said Dr B M Mohan, director, Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL).

EEG is a mode of recording electrical activity of the brain and ERP is a scientific process through which information about a specific information, in which a person may have participated is retrieved.

“The brain stores the memory of any event in which a person may have participated, it may be social or criminal. Through ERP we can get that information. It’s a great help in the investigation  of crime,” said the forensic specialist.

He added that the centre will also have facilities for conducting neuro biological applications. “If a person is an addict, he may suffer some psychological impairment. Through the neuro-biological applications, we can find out the extent of the impairment,” he added.

The CBSF will be commissioned soon after the first meeting of the advisory body headed by Dr Sharat Chandra, former director, Indian Institute for Science, said Director and Inspector General of Police, Karnataka, K R Sreenivasan. “The meeting is scheduled to be held on Sept 4,” he added. The centre will thereafter start taking cases from all over India.

For the Centre 15 posts have been sanctioned and the process of recruitment is already on. “After some time, we will consider integrating all these tests with functional MRI related to forensics. We will also have a transit facility for people coming from outside Bangalore, in judicial custody, for the tests. We get only the accused here and there’s no facility to accommodate them,” said Dr Mohan.

Along with the brain sciences centre, the FSL is also upgrading the DNA centre. “As of now we don’t have any facility for DNA printing. We send material to the DNA centre in Hyderabad. With the upgradation of our facility we will start conducting DNA tests here,” said Mr Sreenivasan.