also useful in medical diagnosis pedigree analysis seed stock identification and sex selection in animals a good number of cases we investigated involved establishing parental identitywe have used dna probes in cases like immigration frauds property inheritance disputes baby exchanges in maternity wards also the first case in which dna probe was accepted as crucial evidence was in 1989 in tellichery kerala where the judge ordered in favour of a woman whose lover denied having fathered her childthe woman who read about another such case we handled in tamil nadu sought our help to establish her case in court the judge who was unaware of the technology summoned me to court and tried me as a witness remembers dr singhthough the dna probe was taken in as positive evidence in this case says singh the prosecutions argument was that it is not included in the indian evidence act establishing the identity of dhanu the suicide bomber who killed former prime minister rajiv gandhi was another occasion when the dna probe was usedwe established that the dna found in the skull charred muscle pieces on the suicide bombers belt showed identical patterns which led us to prove that dhanu was the bomber equally crucial was comparing ltte mastermind sivararasans dna to that of his parents who were flown in from sri lanka for the purpose establishing the identity of sivarasan was the only evidence we had to link the murder of rajiv to the ltte a similar probe was used to establish that the charred remains of a body in the tandoor kitchen of a central delhi hotel belonged to that of naina sahni by comparing the dna from muscle pieces attached to her charred bone with that of her parents and sister in a lajpat nagar bomb blast case when the claimants to compensations exceeded the number of dead dna testing established the true inheritors dna probe helped in bringing swami premananda in tamil nadu behind bars for impregnating a disciple and murdering her brother but dna fingerprinting is not just for catching criminals it can also be used against implicating innocents in 1989 eight persons who had been languishing in us jails for seven years were exonerated after dna evidence proved their innocence points out dr singh the future is bright for dna probe which is now in its fourth generation of technological advance says dr singhwhile the first generation dna tests took three months to complete the fourth generation takes just 24 hours that too with lesser and lesser amount of dna matter the united states already has a computerised dna database of convicted criminals while new zealand has a databank of its entire population