Introduction

Forensic science is the new emerging field in the world of science which proves to be exigent in the investigation of criminal and civil cases. In simple words, knowledge of all-natural sciences is applied in the law, serving fair decisions. The forensic field gives access to various services which aid in solving the buried mystery of the crime. Nowadays the crime rate is increasing with a speedy rate universally. Crime is any act which is against the law. Many factors are affecting the atrocity rate because no one is born as a criminal, it is the social, environmental, biological, many more factors that affect the mental and emotional status of a person, resulting in the commencement of heinous crimes. There is various evidence present at a scene of crime as every person leaves a unique mark at scene of crime which can be categorized as physical, biological, or trace evidence. Evidence form a connecting link between the three; crime scene, accused and victim.

Personal identification is considered as an imperative factor from decades in the process of investigation as it confirms the presence of the person during the time of crime and also helps in proving the guilty. In simple words it can be defined as the process of establishing identity of a specific person. In the case of mass disasters, mass murders, or the cases where the decomposed body is found, personal identification is necessary to identify the deceased (Kanchan, 1-2).

The need to perform personal identification of the accused arises in case of the heinous crime where the suspect leaves its prints in some form that is enough to prove the presence of a suspect at the crime scene.

In 1883, Alphonse Bertillon gave the science of anthropometry i.e. measurement of eleven body parts that were unique to every individual for fulling the aim of identification and continued to be applied for an aforesaid reason until and unless the famous William-West case came where the two have exactly same body measurements late 18th century (Seigel, 474).

The science of fingerprint evolved for individualization which forms the pillar of personal establishing uniqueness of an individual in recent times with chief evidentiary value in court.

The most commonly found evidence at crime place are fingerprint patterns as these are the impression of the palmar and plantar pattern formed by skin ridges (dermal ridges). The ridges present on skin possess various sweat pores through which perspiration comes out and leave the impression of fingerprint pattern when comes in contact with surfaces.

Friction ridges are present on the plantar and palmar region of hands, foot, and also on tails of some primates. They started to form in the ninth and tenth week of fetal life and around 14 week sweat pore and ducts are begin to form. Dermatoglyphics is the science which deals with the analysis and classification of fingerprints (pattern and characteristics) and is used by Sir William Herschel for the first time in India for establishing the identity of an individual. The fingerprints are proved to be an excellent way of establishing the identity of an individual.

Principles of Fingerprint

1. Fingerprint is an important identical characteristic and no two fingers yet have been found to possess the same or identical minutiae.

This principle forms the foundation of acceptance of fingerprint as valid evidence in a court of law. In this, it is stated that individuality is based on minutiae i.e. ridge characteristics because the fingerprint can be the same for two different sources. The point to point examination of minutiae is performed during examination process. The number of points for proving similarities or dissimilarities between the two prints varied from 8-16 in different countries.

2. Fingerprints are permanent i.e. once developed they remain unchanged for life.

Skin consists mainly of two layers epidermis- the outermost and dermis- the innermost. Dermal papillae form the boundary between the two layer, once dermal papillae developed during fetal life, the fingerprint pattern and ridge characteristics remain same throughout the life. Even the practice of corrosives substances like acids or burning cannot change the fingerprint pattern.

3. Fingerprints are classified on the basis of their pattern.

There are basically three patterns of fingerprints: - Arches, Loop, Whorls (Saferstein, 642-644).

There are three types of evidentiary fingerprints found at the crime scene; patent print or visible print, plastic print, and latent prints. Patent print is known as visible print as they are easily visible by naked eyes and need a little enhancement for comparison for example blood-stained print. A plastic print is also known as an indented print with 3D appearance. They are the impression made on soft surfaces like butter, soap, etc. A latent print is the one which is not visible by naked eyes, just an impression due to the release of perspiration. They required different physical and chemical methods for their development (Nordby, 364).

Level of Fingerprint Identification

Fingerprints are the most valuable evidence found at the crime scene. Latent prints are those prints which cannot be seen by naked eyes, they need to be located using light sources and developed with different methods such as powder method, chemical methods and then further directed for analysis and comparison. Francis Galton in 1892 described the ridge characteristics which aid in the establishment of fingerprint system as the finest system for identification. There is basically three levels of identification: -

• First Level (Fingerprint Pattern)

• Second Level (Ridge Characteristics)

• Third level (Ridgeoscopy and Poroscopy) (Kesharwani, 2014).

First level

In the first level of identification, fingerprint patterns formed by the flow of ridges are examined for individualization. The fingerprint pattern varies from individual to individual and also from finger to finger of the same individual. There are three broad fingerprint patterns: - Arches, Loop, and whorl. Arches are found in 5% of population. The ridges entering from one side and exiting from another, it does not have delta. It is further of two type’s plain arches which have a wave like upraise in middle and tented arches have a pointed peak in middle. Loop is the most prevailing pattern found in 65% of population. In this ridge entered from one side shows recurving and exiting from the same side having a core and one delta. It is further classified into an ulnar loop in which loop is facing in direction of little finger and radial loop whose loops open in direction of the thumb. Whorl is found in 35% people, having one core and two deltas. It is of following types plain whorl, central pocket loop, in these two types a single ridge starting from center forms the entire pattern in continuation either in form of a spiral, oval or any circular pattern, if the line drawn between two deltas intersect any of the ridges than it is said to be plain whorl and if do not intersect any spiral ridge than it is central pocket; double loop having two loops combined in a single pattern and accidental; in this, there are two or more patterns present making the print unfit for analysis (http://www.forensicsciencesimplified.org).