US envoy sees evidence collection crucial to pursue crime

The US ambassador in Dhaka has laid emphasis on collecting evidence from the crime scenes meticulously and preserving carefully keeping crime evidence free from contamination.

Marcia Bernicat said, "Contaminated evidence can have dire consequences - the guilty can go free and in some cases, an innocent person might be implicated."

She was addressing on Thursday a handing over ceremony of CODIS to Bangladesh Police as part of cooperation between the two countries.

UNB says CODIS is the acronym for the Combined DNA Index System and is the generic term used to describe the FBI's program of support for criminal justice DNA databases as well as the software used to run these databases.

"With sophisticated technology comes added responsibilities," Bernicat said.

Additional IGP Md Mokhlesur Rahman, Additional IGP, Industrial Police Abdus Salam and DIG (HRM), CID Saiful Alam also spoke at the function held the Criminal Investigation Department (ICD) headquarters.

Talking about CODIS, she said this technology, combined with local expertise, can be a major factor in the improvement of the criminal justice system in Bangladesh.