Dr. Preetika Chatterjee is the head of the department of the Forensic Department at MATS School of Education. She has qualified UGC NET JRF and has research interest in Forensic Anthropology and Forensic Psychology. She has four years teaching experience in Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. She has published 5 research publications in Scopus indexed journals with impact factor above two.

MATS School of Education

What is the latest program you are offering in your institute/department which will help the students to perform better and stand out from the crowd?

Our university is offering the latest course in Forensic Science introduced in our curriculum recently. Everyone is aware of the latest crime scenario inside and outside the state and nowadays there is a very strong demand for crime web series which has given a lot of importance and hype to forensic science. It has also generated interestand being a forensic scientist, I can say that it is indeed a very different and interesting subject to be picked up and it also makes us a better person and help students to stand out from the crowd.

What are the factors that make this program the best for students to choose?

Everyone knows that the increasing population will also affect the crime scenario of the country and as the number of crimes increases, we need the number of investigators and in fact we need good and qualified investigators. There is a need for good investigators to take the investigation forward so that the crime rate can decrease. It may be brought down in the coming days with the skill and expertise imparted through the ug and pg course in forensic science.

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How does the program ensure that students are being prepared for the future?

Our curriculum consists of outdoor crime scene practicals and we give rigorous training to the students with industrial visits, expert talks, visits to various police stations and training institutes to make them aware of the real case scenarios they are going to deal with, when they complete the program. Thescope of B.Sc Forensic Science is that graduates can pursue careers in various fields both in government and private sector, such as crime investigations, forensic laboratories, and law enforcement agencies in addition to banking and insurance sector.

How have you trained yourself/the faculty members to deliver this program to the students?

I myself am a PhD holder in this subject. My expertise is in skeletal identification and sex determination. So, we have very good and qualified faculty who are experts in their various specializations in this subject. Every year we are conducting faculty development program to learn and grow our knowledge we also attend programs and join the seminars from time to time and update ourselves. By attending various national and international conferences, read industry publications and exchange best practices with our personal teaching circles.

What type of projects are students working on through this program?

Right now this is just a starting of this department. Even then we are providing students with cyber projects with the evidence analysis. We are focusing on data-based generation from Chhattisgarh’s different areas.

What are the benefits and career options after doing this course?

Career options are many. If I start from a government institute to a private organization, I can list a few like CFSL Central Forensic Science Lab. At national level we have over 9 central forensic science labs. In our country, every state has a State Forensic Science Laboratory where forensic scientists work. The State Forensic Science Laboratory in Chhattisgarh, is in Tikrapara Raipur, then we have three Regional Forensic Science Laboratory in the state of Chhattisgarh. And like this hierarchy, there are nine mobile forensic science laboratories in every state. So, in these laboratories we need to appoint forensic scientists. These are just laboratories in 1 state every state is having such labs which require skilled man force. As per orders of the central government, everypolice station will have a forensic expert to deal with the crime scene and many states have included it and now Chhattisgarh is in the process of including a forensic expert in every police station. In theprivate sector every multinational company needs criminal profilers, profiling of employees is done by forensic scientists to check criminal tendency of the employees and every sector employees from banking sector, insurance sector required forensic scientist to analyze forged documents to fraud claims.