Bengaluru: He runs the country’s only private forensic lab, Truth Labs, which played a key role in investigating the Vyapam scam involving the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board and racketeers who sold medical seats and government jobs to thousands of candidates.
Seen as India's foremost forensic scientist, Dr K P C Gandhi, has successfully investigated several bank, corporate, education and recruitment scams in the 10 years since he founded Truth Labs, not- for-profit organisation.
“The victim is always the primary collector of forensic evidence. It could be an individual, a corporate, a bank, a university or the government,’’ he says. Mr Gandhi, who is credited with having modernised crime scene investigations in Andhra Pradesh as its former Inspector General of Police emphasises that it's not only the police or law enforcement agencies, but also citizens, who need to understand forensic science.
“Collection of evidence starts with citizens, the police's role comes later,” he stresses, recalling that what brought justice to a foreign tourist, who was raped in Goa some years ago, were a few strands of hair, a peel of skin and a torn bit of shirt of her attacker, that she gathered even under a traumatic situation.
It was after retiring from government service that he set up Truth Labs to offer expert advice to investigation agencies, banks, the police, courts, cyber cells and individuals across the country.
In the last 10 years, the outfit has worked on 10,000 different cases, requiring a wide range of forensic services like examination of documents, fingerprints, DNA, cyber forensics, multimedia forensics, polygraph, incident investigations, investigation of financial frauds and suspicious insurance claims. It has also investigated examination and recruitment rackets involving the Indian Army, police in different states, medical, railway recruitment board exams and bank entrance tests.
Speaking of impersonation in exams frauds, Mr Gandhi says it is rampant among IT firms, banks, insurance companies, hospitals and government departments.
Of the 10,000 cases Truth Labs has received over the years, 30 per cent were referred to it by courts, 20 per cent by Central and state police agencies including the CBI and NIA and 30 per cent from individuals from 20 states. The rest were referred to it by Central and state PSUs, MNC banks and insurance companies.
