Dr Vishal Sharma, Institute of Forensic Science and Criminology,Panjab University, Chandigarh got Dr. P.D. Sethi Memorial National Award 2017 for his work on “Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) for Characterization and Multivariate discrimination of blue ballpoint pen
ink for Forensic applications”, which is published in Vibrational Spectroscopy journal, published by Elsevier Science from Netherland. The committee selected his paper as the best research paper in the category of “Application of HPTLC in Pharma, Herbal and Other Analysis” from India. This work was the part of the thesis of his Ph.D. student Raj Kumar in the Institute.
Dr Vishal Sharma told us that the Ink analysis is a key research area of forensic document examination to detect forgery or authenticate a document i.e. legal paper, passports, wills, currency notes, certificates, and other official documents. The objective of ink analysis includes its classification and the comparison of its chemical constituents with other inks which are similar in appearance.It also ascertains whether two suspected texts are written with the same pens/inks or not.
In many legal cases, the ink is key evidence in ascertaining the connection between forged and genuine document. In establishing an opinion of the case, analysis of substrate (paper) and the writing instrument (pen/pencil) both are equally significant to achieve the authenticity of the received document in forensic laboratories. In cases, where multiple page documents are under examination (such as wills, examination sheets, visa on the passport, bank passbook, and loan agreements etc.), each ink sample is required to be analysed individually in order to determine if they belong to the same or different source.
He further shared that the modern ballpoint pen inks have a complex chemical composition which provides color and quality to the ink. Ink formulation, mainly consists of dyes, pigments, solvents, lubricants,surfactants, emulsifiers, resins, biocides, and pH buffers. Among all these components, the colorants, i.e. dyes/pigments or their mixture,
play a most important role in the individualization of ink as they are long lasting in the written text on paper.
Dr Vishal stated that in the selected research paper, fifty-seven blue ballpoint pen Indian inks were characterized by Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR–FTIR) and discriminated on the basis of High-Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC). The outcome was later coupled with multivariate analysis. This work will help the forensic laboratories worldwide where ink based forgery cases are reported very large in number. For a common man under the naked eyes all the blue pens which otherwise seems to be alike and hence, undifferentiated. This method will be having very high resolution and overcome the drawback in light scanning methods which are not able to detect where there is a very minor difference in the chemical makeup of the two inks.
It is hoped that this research will provide valuable insight concerning the use of ink as convincing scientific evidence in the law enforcement community with respect to forensic document examination. Moreover, this will also help to create an ink database based on data of different types of ink samples as of now there exists no such database based upon the Indian inks. On the similar kind of idea he is undertaking a major research project funded by Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India.
