DNA fi ngerprinting : A substantial and imperative aid to forensic investigation

Around two and a half decades back, the technique of forensic DNA fingerprinting has made the criminal case investigations and justice delivery system much more proficient in context of time and accuracy both. Almost 100 years after the release of the famous character Sherlock Holmes [1], a discovery very strongly attracted the attention of forensic scientists and investigating agencies with its potential to solve many cold cases. This was the discovery of “DNA fingerprints” by Alec Jaffreys at the University of Leicester in the UK. He named the technique as “DNA fingerprinting,” which had the potential to produce unique inheritable patterns from different individuals [2]. Setting the identity of an individual means determining its peculiar characteristics at the molecular level that are not shared by any other individual. Identifying an individual is the major concern of investigating agencies as the question has to be answered in a criminal court, whether the subject was involved or was connected to the respective case under investigation? Forensic investigation mainly deals with the determination of the individuality of a person with certainty. It can be a case of paternity dispute, identification of a missing person or recognition of mutilated bodies, i.e., bones, pieces of bone, teeth or any biological material, which are found at the scene of crime. Short tandem repeat (STR) based forensic DNA typing is widely used with certainty for identification in paternity testing and in forensic trace analysis [3,4]. However, the first use of DNA fingerprinting in March 1985, was to resolve an immigration dispute, which was not a criminal case [5], and in Jaffery’s words had the first case been a criminal case, it would have been challenged and the process may well have been damaged in the courts [6]. The technology was used for the first time in a criminal case of sexual assault and murder of two young girls in Leicestershire, England. The forensic DNA analysis in the case was done by Alec Jaffrey’s, who used DNA technology to prove an association between the two cases. Jaffrey’s also revealed out that the perpetrator behind both the crimes was the same man Colin Pitchfork [7]. These revelations lead to the exoneration of an innocent young man and resulted into the conviction of Colin Pitchfork for both the crimes in 1988, thus proving that DNA is not only the technology to apprehend the guilty but to save the innocent too. DNA commission of the International Society of Forensic Genetics [ISFG] released several guidelines for forensic DNA typing and also an update on DNA fi ngerprinting: A substantial and imperative aid to forensic investigation