Chain of Custody
Chain of Custody
Chain of Custody
INDEX. THE NEED TO PRESEREVE AND SAFLY HANDEL THE EVIDENCE STEPS INVOLVED IN ITS HANDELLING. WHAT IS CHAIN OF CUSTODY WHY IS IT NECESSARY WHAT IS THE VALUE OF CHAIN OC CUSTODY. HOW IS IT MAINTAINED DURING AN INVESTIGATION..
STEPS INVOLVED
ACQUISITION SEIZURE AUTHENTICATION COPYING OR IMAGING OF THE ORIGINAL MEDIA.. PROPER PAKAGING PROTECTION FROM ANY EXTERNAL OR INTERNAL DAMAGE
Documentation should include the conditions under which the evidence is gathered, the identity of all evidence handlers, duration of evidence custody, security conditions while handling or storing the evidence, and the manner in which evidence is transferred to subsequent custodians each time such a transfer occurs (along with the signatures of persons involved at each step).
ITS NEED
The idea behind recording the chain of custody is to establish that the alleged evidence is in fact related to the alleged crime, rather than having, for example, been planted fraudulently to make someone appear guilty.
The chain of custody documentation and testimony is presented by the prosecution to establish that the substance in evidence was in fact in the possession of the defendant. the chain of custody also helps us to find out if the evidence has been mis -placed or was left unattended by any investigating officer.
ITS VALUE.
Evidence found at the scene of a crime must eventually be presented and questioned in the courtroom. For the evidence to be of use in a trial, it must make the journey from crime scene to court in a validated and secure manner so that all involved can be assured that it has not been contaminated and that the evidence is relevant to the crime investigation. In order to insure validity, investigators must follow a routine commonly known as the chain of custody when it comes to collecting and handling evidence.
now a days bearing in mind the difficulties in handling the chain of custody, a computerized format of the same is made so that the chain of custodies of all the cases (solved or unsolved) can be kept as a record.
Also the space of storing these c-o-c files is no more an issue now
But the initial handwritten c-o-c is very important and cant be skipped out, later on for the purpose of convenience these sheets can then be entered in the computers for their safety as well as further investigation purposes.
With this facility we can come to know that is any statement , date, sign, etc in the c-o-c is modified or altered late on