Abstract
Letters, figures or words are sometimes fraudulently added to a contract or other legal documents after it has been signed or produced. This can drastically change the intent of the document. It is more difficult to detect additions that are skillfully added to a document than erasures. It becomes the task of the document examiner to determine if the addition or alteration was made after the document was executed or these were the part and parcel of the document earlier. The forensic document experts can examine, detect and interpret the evidence of alteration by means of additions/insertions, as well as relative age of writings and spuriousness of the documents even in the absence of samples. Besides examining the different types of forgery involved in the writings/ signatures, the ink of the writings, misalignment between the letters, figures, words as well as lines, crowdedness of the writing, rhythm of the writing1, detection and analysis of indented and other accidental markings in the front as well as back side of the document under observation need to be carefully and thoroughly examined. In this study, the systematic method of identification of fraudulent nature of the document with respect to alteration by means of additions/ insertions/interpolation, as well as relative age of writings are discussed.
Highlights
Nowadays, forensic document examiners are dealing with fraud cases in which fraudsters are continuously exploiting and developing new methods to cheat both individual and various organizations
It is more difficult to detect additions that are skillfully added to a document than erasures
It becomes the task of the document examiner to determine if the addition or alteration was made after the document was executed or these were the part and parcel of the document earlier
Summary
Forensic document examiners are dealing with fraud cases in which fraudsters are continuously exploiting and developing new methods to cheat both individual and various organizations. In some of the cases it has been observed that alterations are done in such a way that it is difficult for layman to identify these alterations but their impact is so high which changes the nature and intent of the document produced in order to cheat the innocent person(s) or organization(s). In some of the document problems it has been observed that some part of the document has been added subsequently which all together alters the nature and purpose of the document In such type of cases mainly following questions arises -Whether any addition/ alteration has taken place in the document, if yes, which part/portion is added and when. Any combination of aforesaid examination techniques may be required on such documents depending on the questions raised about their integrity and method of production
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