Citing repeated delays in forensic response to serious crimes in the State capital, the Association of Kohima Municipal Wards Council (AKMWC) has warned that Nagaland’s criminal investigations are being “undermined at the very foundation”, calling forensic capacity “no longer optional” and urging the Chief Minister’s immediate intervention.
Referring to two recent deaths in Kohima, the AKMWC said that in both cases “crime scenes were left exposed and uncontrolled for several critical hours solely because Kohima lacks any functional forensic unit and the Forensic Science Laboratory at Dimapur remains crippled by chronic staffing failures.”
The association recalled that on September 24, 2025, a police constable was found dead from a gunshot injury at the Lerie helipad at about 6.23 a.m., yet forensic investigators arrived only late in the afternoon. Barely a month later, following the murder of a young woman at Old Ministers’ Hill Colony, the incident was reported as early as 7 a.m., but forensic personnel “had to be mobilised from Dimapur and reached the scene only after 2 p.m.”
“These were not remote or inaccessible locations but serious crimes occurring within the State capital itself,” the AKMWC said, adding that such delays “directly undermined the integrity of the investigation, violated basic principles of criminal justice, and amounted to a serious human rights violation of the victims and their families.”
Despite the inauguration of an “upgraded” Forensic Science Laboratory at Dimapur in September 2018 and repeated claims of creating nine scientific posts, the association said “not a single regular Scientific Officer or Scientific Assistant has been recruited to this day.” Nearly eight years later, the laboratory “survives on deputed personnel, with core forensic divisions crippled or non-functional and costly equipment lying idle.”
The AKMWC described the situation as “a textbook case of administrative apathy and institutional failure,” pointing out that qualified Naga forensic professionals “from diploma holders to PhDs” continue to work outside the State or are pushed into overage “while public-funded equipment gathers dust and becomes obsolete.”
The issue, the association said, has gained statutory urgency with the enforcement of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, which mandates forensic involvement at crime scenes in serious offences. Continued dependence on sending exhibits to other States, it warned, “causes inordinate delay and exposes evidence to degradation, contamination, and potential miscarriage of justice.”
Referring to the Rs 97 lakh theft at the Kohima Municipal Council office in June 2025, the association said the case unravelled into a chain of thefts exceeding Rs 1.5 crore only after custodial confession. “Modern investigation depends on forensic linkage, digital correlation, financial trail analysis, and pattern recognition,” it said, asking how many crimes were never linked “simply because no forensic capacity existed to connect the dots in time.”
Recalling the January 4, 2026 announcement on Aakashvani where Amit Shah, Union Home Minister announced a Rs 30,000 crore investment to build a nationwide forensic network by 2029, the association argued, Forensics is no longer optional.
“It is foundational. But, Nagaland cannot wait until 2029. How many robbers, rapists, murderers, and repeat offenders have escaped detection or conviction due to compromised evidence and delayed forensic response. How many victims were denied justice not by law, but by administrative inertia. Build in-state forensic capability now, staffed by trained scientific personnel, to enable early crime linkage, real-time digital and financial analysis, CCTV correlation, and asset recovery. Until then, serious crime in Nagaland will continue to be investigated blindfolded, and justice will remain delayed, diluted, and denied,” it stated.
Calling for urgent intervention, the AKMWC urged the Chief Minister to “personally intervene and direct time-bound measures,” including the immediate operationalisation of the Dimapur Forensic Science Laboratory through expedited recruitment, and the establishment or revival of a functional FSL in Kohima with dedicated scientific staff.
It also pressed for the institutionalisation of district-level forensic response and “fixed accountability timelines for the Home Department,” asserting that strengthening forensic science capacity is “a core requirement for credible policing and justice delivery.”
