Journal of Forensic Research

Importance of Forensic Investigation in Explosion: A Case study

Abstract

Surendra Kumar, Pradeep Jain and Mukesh Sharma

In India, the forts and fortresses are historical heritage and symbol of grandeur, dignity and strength of our vibrant past. Rajasthan is the most visited place by foreigners in India to feel and explore this heritage. All these forts and fortresses were equipped with every kind of war wares & weapons, which can be found or witnessed decades later, nowadays too and gun powder was one of the essential commodities of warfare. The unutilized gun powder in these forts brings a problem as no one knows about its whereabouts of storage as these forts and fortresses got abandoned on their own and this causes accidental explosions.
Such an interesting in forensic point of view incident was reported in the fortress of village Jasaana where some arc welding for the modernization work in the fortress was being done and a massive explosion occurred. Our team of expert visited the spot of occurrence, in forensic point of view, calculated the amount of explosive materials and level of explosion. On the basis of our observations we concluded that this explosion might have been caused by gunpowder. Through this article we tried to put light on the features and characteristics phenomenon of gun powder explosion and we have performed first ever a forensic attempt to estimate the approximate amount of gun powder that got exploded.