Home Ministry Buys 5,000 Rape Investigation Kits

For swift investigation of rape cases, the Union home ministry has purchased 5,000 rape investigation kits. These kits would be provided to police stations across the country.

Rape investigation kits would help in the speedy probe in sexual harassment cases.

According to a senior official from the women and child development department, "The home ministry has procured 5,000 rape investigation kits that would be distributed to randomly selected police stations across the country for speedy probes in sexual harassment cases."

nitially, five kits would be provided to randomly selected police stations.

Also Read: WCD Ministry Introduces Rape Kits, Says It Will Ensure Speedy Probe

In June this year, Union minister Maneka Gandhi had announced that the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) will be distributing specially-designed kits to all police stations and hospitals. Last week, Gandhi urged states to buy such kits to carry out immediate medical investigation into sexual harassment cases.

Each rape investigation kit comes with a set of test tubes and bottles and costs Rs 200 to Rs 300.

"It is often seen that compromised evidence reach forensic laboratories in such cases. So in a bid to overcome that, rape investigation kits would be distributed to all police stations," the official said

These kits would be used to preserve possible DNA evidence and collect various samples, such as blood, semen and sweat of rape survivors. These will be sealed and sent to forensic laboratories. The samples will be sealed with the name of the police officer, doctor and the time will be written on it.

Maneka Gandhi stated that her ministry is ensuring that rape cases are investigated speedily. She had said there was no forensic analysis in 13,000 rape cases every year. The country's laboratories lacked the capacity. These rape evidence kits will help in the speedy probe in sexual assault cases.

"The first ones we found were in the forensic department. We just have the forensic ability for 1,500 people. We used the Nirbhaya fund and with the help of the Ministry of Home Affairs, we are building five new forensic laboratories that will increase the capacity from 1,500 to 20,000," she said.

"At times the forensic laboratories receive compromised evidence, that is why there is a need to distribute the rape investigation kits in every police station," she had said.

The states have responded positively to this measure.

Also Read: Ministry of WCD Plans To Have Rape Evidence Kits In All Police Stations

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Deepali Is An Intern With SheThePeople.TV