Wednesday | Jun 18 2025 | 01:42:15 PM
New Delhi, June 2
Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated the new building of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Kolkata, in West Bengal.
HM Amit Shah said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Government of India is working with a vision to build a secure, transparent, and evidence-based criminal justice system. He said that today, another important link is being added to this effort.
He stated that the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), built in Kolkata at a cost of ₹88 crore, will help West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Assam, Sikkim, and all the states of the Northeast in developing an evidence-based criminal justice system and in fulfilling the role with a holistic approach. Shri Shah said that in the implementation of our three new criminal laws, this FSL will play a significant role in understanding, adopting, and delivering the importance of evidence, forensic science, and securing convictions to every police station.
Home Minister said that the Modi government is working to establish a network of FSLs across the country by forming clusters of 3–4 states to make their criminal justice systems evidence-based. He said that with this cluster approach, a campaign will be launched from January 2026 to take forensic science down to the police station level, to establish its importance as evidence in every court, and to make every investigating officer in police stations understand its significance.
Through this, the criminal justice system across the country will be transformed from being based on argument to being evidence-based, ensuring that the guilty do not benefit from the benefit of doubt and that justice is delivered to the victim. Shri Shah said that this entire process is only possible when police stations, public prosecutors, and courts understand its importance, adopt it, and give it priority in their functioning.
He added that by creating an FSL network and adopting a cluster approach, the involvement of experts in complex cases will lead to decisions being made more efficiently, resulting in a radical transformation of the entire criminal justice system. He also mentioned that today, the Narcotics Version 2.0 and Explosives Version 2.0 have been formally launched, which will simplify various tasks for forensic science laboratories across the country.
Home Minister said that the Government of India has offered support for one forensic mobile van in every district, and many states have increased the number of vans on their own based on the number of FIRs registered. He stated that 16 campuses of the National Forensic Science University (NFSU) have been approved, 7 have been established, and the rest are in process.
He said that, in addition to this, an NFSU college will be set up in every major state to ensure the availability of trained manpower. He noted that from 26 campuses across the country, 36,000 students will graduate annually with degrees, diplomas, and PhDs, while the country’s requirement is 30,000 trained professionals per year. In this way, the task of creating human resources as per the requirement has been completed in advance.
Shah added that 9 more NFSU campuses will be built at a cost of Rs. 1,300 crore, and 7 new CFSLs will be established at a cost of Rs. 860 crore in Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Bihar. He said the Ministry of Home Affairs has supported the forensic science infrastructure of the states. He also mentioned that a Rs. 2,080 crore plan is being introduced for the modernization of forensic capabilities, and a National Forensic Data Centre will be established at a cost of Rs. 200 crore.
