36 | Science Reporter | February 2018

National Police Museum Revealing Crimes

K.N. Gupta

FEATURE ARTICLE

THE CBI Training Academy, Ghaziabad exudes an aura of honour and respectability. The people frequenting this place have anything but crooks and criminals on their mind.

But then you might just step into a room that is so different from the everyday world. A cursory glance brushes past fi ngerprints of Abraham Lincoln, the contents of the case filed by the British against Bhagat Singh, the FIR of the Mahatma Gandhi assassination case, forged signatures of former president of India Giani Zail Singh and late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, fake copies of currencies ranging from rupees one thousand to rupee one, a gun shaped like a walking stick – all part of the topsy-turvy world of cops and criminals. And thus one begins a tour of the National Police Museum, dedicated to the Indian Police and Forensic Science.

It also highlights the modus-operandi of the criminals, the scientifi c-aids employed in investigation and detection of crime, the latest techniques adopted by the Central and State Fingerprint Bureau and so on. The exhibits have been acquired from different states and central police organisations and world over through INTERPOL and are both of Indian and Foreign origin.

With the opening of the National Police Museum by the Central Bureau of Investigation, a new chapter has been added to the museum movement in India. This is the fi rst attempt, and a commendable one, to dedicate a museum to the Indian Police.

The National Police Museum was formally inaugurated by Shri Raja Vijay Karan, the then Director CBI. Earlier called the CBI museum, the DGPs/IGPs Conference held in the year 1984, decided to upgrade this museum into a

National Police Museum. There is no admission fee. The museum is closed on Saturdays and Sundays and other holidays. Photography is allowed with prior permission.

The philosophy behind the Museum is to contribute its mite towards a better understanding of the science of criminology. On display are the methods used by both the law-breakers and law keepers. So, while there are forged cheques on display along with ultra-violet lamps that can detect forged entries, also on display are rare paintings and their facsimiles which have been replicated with much ingenuity and can sometimes even compete with the real work.

The museum tries to answer some very pertinent questions: Why do crimes take place and how? Who are the criminals and how are they born? How can these crimes be prevented?

The National Police Museum consists of various exhibits on a variety of subjects. There are brass medallion of the Japan (Metropolitan Police Tokyo), Silver medallion of Mexico, and plaques of the National Police Academy, Kenya Police, the Hague, Denmark, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong Police.

A whole section has been devoted to a sizeable collection of caps, badges, shoulder and lapel insignia – all from different state police forces in India and abroad. Besides, there is an array of

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cap and shoulder badges from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the ICPO.

The international Police flags include representations of Chilean, Korean, Finnish, Austrian, Indonesian and US Police forces as well as the ICPO/INTERPOL badges. Then there are the uniforms – formal attires of police officers of different ranks of Central and State police organisations, and from Kenyan, Ugandan, German and Cyprus police forces and Nigeria Police.

The most interesting, however, is the Arms (Weaponry) section. There are ancient guns and pistols, axes, bows, bulletproof vests, helmets, bullets of different calibre used by security forces in India. There are arms of the Mughal period and Medieval period such as ‘Gupti’, ‘Katariun’ a weapon used by the tribals, pen type pistol, watch-type revolver (country made), .303” country made gun and other pistol/revolvers of different bores and calibres, country made improvised pistol, hand made improvised long SBBL gun, country made 2” mortar gun muzzle loading, pump type pistol, etc. The replica of a hand grenade which was used in a plot to kill VIPs in 1970 is also worth mentioning.

The modern equipment on display include two-way mirrors, portable folding road barriers, beam light burglar alarms, security shock rods and the latest crowd control instrument which gives mild shocks and emits

blinding light to temporarily control infuriated mobs.

In the Counterfeit Currency Notes and Coin section, there are forged currency notes from Rs 100 to Rs. 1 and genuine notes of higher denominations of Rs. 10,000, Rs. 5,000, besides Rs. 1 to Rs. 100 and counterfeit coins of

different denominations. There are also counterfeit foreign currency exhibits including British Postal Order and U.S. Dollars. One rupee coins with King Georg VI picture, one rupee coin with Queen Victoria pictures, eight anna coins, four anna and two annas coins are also exhibited. Specimens of genuine notes (without number) of different denominations are made available by the Reserve Bank of India.

In the Counterfeiting Equipment Section, there are sturck dies with iron frames for counterfeiting one rupee coins, metal block for forging ten rupee, five rupee and one rupee notes, moulds for manufacturing one rupee counterfeit coins, crucible for melting metals for counterfeit

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coins, rexel numbering machine made in England used for numbering forged currency notes and such other equipments for counterfeiting notes and coins of different denominations. Such methods are now outdated because of the quality of the genuine currency notes and

38 | Science Reporter | February 2018

use of sophisticated detection methods. The antiques section exhibits idols

of white marble stone dating back to the 11th Century AD, red stone idols and several other pieces of rare antiques. Presently only such pieces of antiques have been exhibited in the museum wherein cases have already been decided by the courts.

There are photographs of forged as well as genuine signatures of VVIPs, such as Shri Giani Zail Singh (the then President of India) and Smt. Indira Gandhi, former Prime Minister.

There are also very important Urdu Hukumnamas. There are photographs of important FIRs written in Urdu, such as, FIR concerning assassination of Mahatma Gandhi (FIR No. 68/48) dated 30-01-48 u/s 302 IPC against Nathu Ram Godse and against one of the torch-bearers of the Indian freedom struggle, Shahid Bhagat Singh (FIR No. 113/29) dated 8-4-1929 u/s 307 IPC.

Under the Crime Section there are charts relating to crimes under different heads – house breaking implements, wall clock (40 tolas of gold concealed inside) and wrist watches, shoes used for concealing gold jewellery, battery cells (with six to seven pieces of wrist watches concealed in each cell), cycle forks and other apparatus used for smuggling gold and gold ornaments, etc.

The museum also consists of exhibits like portable fingerprint kit and photographs of forged High School Certifi cates, photographs of re-use of court fee Stamps and Postal Stamps.

Under the section cheats and dacoits, there are photographs of Natwar Lal, Babu Gujar, Gabbar, Putli Bai and Rukhmiya.

The Fingerprints and Photographs Section is also informative. Photos

of two sets of fi nger impressions of a pair of twins, forged fi ngerprints on an otherwise immaculately worded will (detection of which saved legal heirs from being deprived of ancestral property), finger and palm print of famous personalities like Shah Jahan and Sir William Herschel are all there.

One also fi nds photos of the Bertillon system of identifi cation, explanation of the effect of plastic surgery on mutilated fi ngerprints and some other interesting cases of identifi cation. There are charts and boards displaying infamous cases where the police have successfully matched wits with cunning criminals and unscrupulous killers, like the exhibits regarding the murder of the Chopra children in 1978. On display are the fi ngerprints of the murderers – Billa and Ranga, the number plates of the car they used for the crime, photographs of hair on the clothes of the victims and in the car, and other evidence the police dug up to nail the culprits.

A look at the items on display in the Museum conveys the painstaking efforts of the police forces to unearth culprits, murderers, terrorists and smugglers. But perhaps, more important is the message it conveys to the public – that without their involvement and help, the police can make little headway in ensuring the execution of law and order.

The National Police Museum dedicated to the Indian Police is located in the CBI Training Academy, Kamla Nehru Nagar, Ghaziabad (UP).

Mr Kailash Nath Gupta is Supdt. of Police, CBI (Retd.) and Sr. Supdt. of Police (Retd.), National Human Rights Commission. He is also a President of India Awardee. Address: D1A/115, Janak Puri, New Delhi-110058; Email: kailashnathgupta@gmail.com