SAFE HANDELLING, PRESERVATION OF

ORIGINAL MEDIA
AND
ITS CHAIN OF CUSTODY
(DOCUMENTATION)

BY :
PRACHEE RATNAPARKHI

INDEX.
THE NEED TO PRESEREVE AND SAFELY
HANDEL THE EVIDENCE
STEPS INVOLVED IN ITS
HANDELLING.
WHAT IS CHAIN OF CUSTODY
WHY IS IT NECESSARY
WHAT IS THE VALUE OF CHAIN OF
CUSTODY.
HOW IS IT MAINTAINED DURING AN
INVESTIGATION..

THE NEED TO PRESEREVE AND

SAFELY HANDEL THE EVIDENCE
TO PRODUCE AN EXACT IMAGE OF THE
ORIGINAL MEDIA..
TO RECONSTRUCT THE EVENTS THAT
OCCURRED.
TO AVOID LOSS OF ANY MINUTE AND
IMPORTANT INFORMATION.
TO AVOID ANY KIND OF DAMGE TO THE
ORIGINAL MEDIA
TO AVOID ANY ENVIRONMENTAL
DAMAGE

STEPS INVOLVED
ACQUISITION
SEIZURE
AUTHENTICATION
COPYING OR IMAGING OF THE
ORIGINAL MEDIA..
PROPER PAKAGING
PROTECTION FROM ANY
EXTERNAL OR INTERNAL
DAMAGE

WHAT IS CHAIN OF CUSTODY

Chain of custody (CoC) refers to the
chronological documentation or paper trail,
showing the seizure, custody, control, transfer,
analysis, and disposition of evidence, physical or
electronic.

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

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 miss -placed or was left

ITS VALUE.
Evidencefound 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

How to maintain a chain of custody...

The first person to collect an item of evidence, be it
a bloodstain or a bullet, will sign their initials and date
either on the item itself or on its packaging. Clearly,
marking an item ensures there is no ambiguity, as
packaging could be separated from the evidence
itself. However, some types of evidence, such as
bullets, may be altered if marked and, of course, it is
not possible to mark evidence like bloodstains or
fingerprints directly.
Evidence usually goes from the crime scene to the
forensic laboratory for examination where the
receiving officer signs the evidence package and
dates it. Everyone who handles the evidence does
likewise until the analysis is complete. At this stage,
the evidence will be given to the police for storage

 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

A BASIC CHAIN OF CUSTODY SHEET

A COMPUTERISED SAMPLE OF C-O-C

THANK YOU FOR YOUR

PATIENCE AND EARS