Cosmetics can be helpful in tracing criminals: Research conducted at Punjabi University, Patiala
Kanwar Inder Singh/ February 12,2023
Research has been carried out at Punjabi University, Patiala on how cosmetics can be helpful in gathering sufficient and valid evidence to legally prove the involvement of people in various types of assault and felony crimes.
The research was done by Rito Chophi under the supervision of Prof. Rajinder Singh from the Department of Forensic Science.
Through this research, methods were developed to scientifically demonstrate that cosmetics can be an important piece of evidence in cases of rape, murder, sexual assault against women, and anonymous threatening letters.
Research has shown that analysing the amount of cosmetic material stuck to objects such as clothing, tissue paper, drinking cups, and cigarette butts can establish links between the victim, the accused, and the crime scene.
Supervisor Prof. Rajinder Singh said that it is a matter of pride for us that the results of this research have been published in International Journals. He said that in this study, by using two spectroscopic techniques, different types of selected cosmetic ingredients such as lipstick, sindoor, nail paint, and eye cosmetics such as eye-liner, kajal and eye-shadow made by different manufacturers were analysed.
He said that the results obtained through research using various scientific techniques have been interpreted based on the facts using statistical tools and chemometric techniques such as Principal Component Analysis and Linear Discriminant Analysis.
A validation study has also been conducted on the model developed using these techniques. He happily expressed that encouraging results have been obtained based on different manufacturing brands of different cosmetic materials selected for this study.
He stated that the research method used in this study will prove helpful in comparison of standard samples and suspect samples of this material by providing statistically based results.
Researcher Rito Chophi said that in general, in serious assault and felony crimes like rape, parts of cosmetic materials are often obtained as evidence which after scientific analysis can be used as evidence for legal action. He said that during the research, the effect of different surfaces (substrates) like cotton clothes, tissue paper, plastic and glass on the cosmetic material and the effect of environmental conditions on the samples exposed to the external environment were also investigated.
Apart from this, the research also assessed how the presence of heavy metals in cosmetics could pose a threat to the health of users.
Vice Chancellor Prof. Arvind while congratulating on this research, said that this research study will help various law enforcement agencies and the court in the justice process. He said that Punjabi University differs from all other research institutes in that there is a significant diversity in the fields of research conducted here. Here, from language, literature and culture to science, technology, engineering, management, business etc., research work is being conducted with equivalent zeal and intensity.
(royalpatiala.in News)
