Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Sunday said that as soon as the state police became a party to the matter related to the land on which the State Institute of Forensic Sciences is coming up, the mafia vacated it on its own.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah Sunday laid the foundation stone for the institute and said Rs 200 crore will be spent on building it.
He also informed that initially around 150 students will graduate from the institute every year, and there will be over 350 faculty members, according to a government release.
Addressing the gathering here during the ceremony, Adityanath said, "The government took cognisance of this (land grab by mafia), and told the police to become a party in this matter. As soon as the UP police became a party in the matter pertaining to this land, the land mafia which had grabbed the said land, left it on its own, and the UP government got the possession of 142 acre of land."
He also said that properties of the mafia and gangster worth Rs 1,584 have been seized.
In a statement issued here Saturday, the UP government had said that the state-of-the-art UP State Institute of Forensic Sciences will prove to be a milestone for a speedy disposal of criminal cases.
The proposed institute is being constructed on 50 acres of land in Lucknow, the statement said, adding it will be a centre of excellence in the field of scientific crime investigation with modern facilities and technology.
This institute will act as a resource centre in the field of forensics, behavioral science, civil and crime law by becoming a pool of trained manpower, the government said.
In this institute, to be headed by a senior police officer, students of science and IT stream will be able to do courses in various subjects, the statement said.
The institute will also train forensic scientists working in labs and police personnel by developing professional skills for scientific investigation of cases of complex crimes, it said.
A Centre of Excellence for DNA will also be established in this institute in collaboration with National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU), Gandhinagar, Gujarat, according to the Saturday statement.
The state government along with the institute is also setting up forensic labs at the police range level across the state, in which forensic equipment and DNA lab will be present.
Eight mobile forensic vans laced with modern equipment have also been made available to all the zonal headquarters for quick and safe collection of evidence after the crime. Forensic mobile vans have facilities for preliminary testing of blood, semen, explosives, narcotics, firearms, microchemicals, etc, the statement said.