Fire at Hyderabad's Forensic Science Laboratory Raises Questions About Evidence Destruction

A fire broke out at Hyderabad’s Forensic Science Laboratory — which processes forensic evidence of most crimes in Telangana — Saturday morning. The fire gutted the first floor of the two-storey building. According to fire firefighters, computers and document files were lost in the fire. The FSL has not clarified if any crucial evidence was lost. Meanwhile, the fire chief Vikram Singh Mann has said that all measures were taken to save as many files as possible. The fire broke out at 10.15 am, and the first fire call was received at 10.21 am. It took two hours for the fire fighters to douse the flames. The cause of fire is believed to be “electrical in origin”, meaning it could have been a short circuit, fire tending officials told The Indian Express . As FSL deals with crucial forensic evidence in high profile cases too, Telangana’s opposition party the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has said that the fire was caused deliberately to wipe out evidence in important cases including ‘cash for vote’ case in which the current Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy was accused. Casting aspersions, BRS working president K T Rama Rao wrote on X, “I am guessing the voice recordings of the famous ‘vote for note’ case. And trying to cover up for lack of evidence in cooked up political cases like phone tapping”. BRS spokesperson Sravan Dasoju said that a judicial inquiry should be instituted to look into the fire. The Congress and the state government have not officially responded to the allegations.