Page 22 - Veritas - 02.03.22

been normal individuals who have been committing crimes. We ha-

ven’t gotten cases where the person has an extreme disorder like an

antisocial personality disorder or other personality disorders. That is

usually dealt with by NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health

and Neurosciences) . If the court wants to see if a person is compe-

tent enough to stand trial then it is sent to NIMHANS and they do

the competency test. What we do is only related to polygraph, brain

mapping, and narco analysis. The other section is usually done by

clinical psychologists.

3. What type of crimes are referenced to you the most?

We get different varieties of cases such as murder, theft, smuggling,

and rape. Murder cases constitute 80-90% of the cases we get. We

did have a theft case that involved a long list of suspects, which was

quite time-consuming. Mostly it is 302 IPC (Indian Penal Code) and

POCSO (Protection of Children against Sexual Offences) cases.

4. What is done when a person going on trial is suspected to be

mentally ill?

If the court sees that the person is not mentally sane, then they go

for a psychiatric evaluation, and as per the result, they give the rul-

ing. Maybe they admit them into a psychiatric ward where they will

be monitored often.

5. Is criminal profiling often used in India? Under what circum-

stances is it used?

Criminal profiling is rarely used. As far as I know, it was used in the

Burari deaths case. The Delhi FSL and CBI (Central Bureau of Inves-

tigation) did the criminal profiling, and they were able to identify the

cause. Similarly, a 20 - 25-year-old case in Kerala also used criminal

profiling where they were able to assess how the death happened.

Criminal profiling is like the autopsy of the psychological state of

the person, which has led to death. Western countries do give a lot of

importance to Forensic Psychology as they emphasize on men