Hubli :
The department of forensic odontology, SDM Dental College, Dharwad, which played a vital role in proving guilty all the accused in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case, works closely with the police department to solve criminal cases.
Established in January 2006 in SDM Dental College, Sattur, near Dharwad, its main service is carrying out dental analysis to find clues in solving crime cases. It’s the first of its kind in the state and country, where dental modules are put to forensic analysis.
In recognition of its service, the state government recognized this department as a referral centre for forensic dental cases in Karnataka in 2010. Spread over a 500 sqft area, the lab is equipped with light tables, forensic magnifying glasses, digital calipers and computers to conduct forensic analysis.
Dr Ashit B Acharya, head of the department, said, “It’s team work and the collective effort of all departments — mainly oral digital radiology, paediatric dentistry, oral pathology and oral surgery. We take help from these departments to conduct forensic analysis and give the final results. Every year, we will get 20-22 cases from the police department to conduct dental forensic analysis seeking our help in determining the age of adults, children, postmortem age estimation, sex determination of skulls and bite mark analysis.”
Apart from the police department, the lab also gets cases from the Kerala Government Dental College and Kasturba Medical College, Manipal. Police from Hubli, Gulbarga, Kushalngar, Bangalore, Mysore, Belgaum and other places refer cases to our department, he said.
He said the Nirbhaya case is not the first one from Delhi, with Delhi Police contacting them on a regular basis.
“Our department also played a significant role in solving the mystery shrouding the age and sex of hundreds of skulls found in Annigeri, near Hubli. We conducted a thorough forensic analysis of skulls and teeth for one month and established that the skulls belonged to children aged 6-8 years, and men and women aged between 30 and 50 years. The state archaeology department finally came to the conclusion that the skulls belonged to those who died in a famine and it helped them conclude that it was a heterogeneous population,” Dr Acharya said.
The lab uses two methods: x-rays for children and anatomic and microscopic methods for forensic analysis of adults. A microscopic method is used for the dead, that requires them to slice the teeth. For living people, they use anatomic or x-ray based method. X-rays are also used for the dead. Depending on the cases, analysis is done in a day or week or even a month. “We took about a month’s time to complete analysis of the Annigeri skulls,” he said.
THE DOCTOR IN CHARGE
Dr Ashit B Acharya is among the few experts in the dental forensic field. He is from Puttur, near Sullia, in Dakshina Kannada district. He did his high school and college education in Mysore, and BDS from SDM Dental College in 1999-2000.
After graduating, he specialized in forensic dentistry in Australia, then started his own lab in Nepal, working there from 2002 to 2005, before coming to Dharwad. He joined SDM College as head of the forensic department in 2006.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Hubli> Forensic Analysis / by Basavaraj F. Kattimani, TNN / September 14th, 2013