In a major boost to the investigation of crimes against women and minors, the state Cabinet on Wednesday approved a Rs 26.85 crore proposal to strengthen the forensic infrastructure in its labs. Now, DNA testing facilities are available in six of the eight forensic science laboratories in Maharashtra, at Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad, Amravati and Nagpur. After the cabinet's decision, additional analysers, manpower and equipment will be added at these six labs and the facility will be launched soon at Kolhapur and Nanded. These new genetic analysers (one at each lab) will be earmarked only for investigations of sexual offences and those registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012. The Centre has sanctioned Rs 53.70 crore under the Nirbhaya Fund, of which the Rs 26.85 crore amount has been released. It will ensure faster reports and judicial action in cases of crimes against women and minors like rapes and molestations. A senior home department official said the Directorate of Forensic Science Laboratories (DFSL) annually received around 10,000 cases for DNA analysis, of which around 4,000 were sexual offences or those registered under POSCO. Cases like murder, identification of unknown and mangled bodies, rape, murder, attempt to murder and paternity, are sent for DNA analysis. "They have around 3,000 cases pending DNA analysis. The induction of DNA analysers for POSCO cases will speed up results," said a senior official from the home department. The official added they would focus on tackling the inflow of cases in the forensic labs in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. The Mumbai and Nagpur labs already have two genetic analysers each. The DFSL gets around 2.25 lakh cases annually for analysis across departments like toxicology, biology and serology, DNA, general analytics and instrumentation, prohibition and excise, ballistics, physics, cyber forensics, tape authentication and speaker identification (TASI) and psychology. WHAT’S IN KITTY

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