By Vishal Gulati

Shimla, Aug 26 (IANS): A British-era laboratory here has lost its pride of place as the world's second oldest forensic institution after Scotland Yard, with the central government deciding to merge it with another lab.

Government Examiner of Questioned Documents (GEQD) was set up by the British in 1904 to identify handwritings on secret documents connected to freedom fighters of the Indian national movement. It has to its credit solved a number of high-profile white-collar crimes even after India's independence in 1947.

It has expertise in the retrieval of writings from documents - even from charred and damaged ones.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) decided this month to merge three GEQDs in the country - at Hyderabad, Kolkata and Shimla - with the Central Forensic Science Laboratories (CFSLs) at Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chandigarh respectively.

The GEQD and CFSL are wings of the MHA's Directorate of Forensic Science.

B.A. Vaid, laboratory in-charge here, told IANS: "A communiqué regarding its merger with the CFSL of Chandigarh has been received."

The ministry took the merger decision Aug 6 on the recommendations of the consultants appointed to review the working of all forensic institutions, another official said.

"I will take up the matter with MHA authorities to reconsider the decision. I will request them to help retain its independent identity and that it should be preserved as one of the world's oldest institutions," Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal told IANS.

State Congress leader Vidya Stokes said she would write to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, requesting him to allow the GEQD to maintain its unique identity.

"Now, there is also a move to close the lab and shift the employees to Chandigarh. We will not allow the institution of great historical importance to be shifted out of this place," she said.

GEQD officials said the lab played an important role in solving talked-about cases like the verification of entries made in diaries by the Jain brothers regarding huge payments to certain top politicians in a hawala scam and examination of documents relating to stock broker Harshad Mehta's multi-million-rupee securities scam.

It was also involved in the scrutiny of fake stamp papers in the Abdul Karim Telgi multi-billion-rupee scam and the case of alleged bribes paid to Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MPs.

The laboratory also furnished opinion in cases like funding of militants in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir and the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.

According to the archives of the GEQD of Shimla, it is the second oldest forensic institution in the world after Scotland Yard. It was set up by the British chiefly to censor letters and identification of handwritings to nail freedom fighters.

The lab also played a key role during World War II when it took up the additional work of secret censorship, including the detection of invisible writings and training of military personnel in this field of science.