VSC®-8000/HS- A Robust Tool for Differentiation of Overlapped Black Pen Inks in Fraudulent Documents

Abstract

Contemporary advancement and digitalization of technology has made analysis of ink extremely challenging. Selecting the best technique for ink analysis is the need of the hour. The latest version of Video spectral comparator i.e. VSC®- 8000/HS has a vast horizon of features such as multi-spectral light sources, database of currencies and passports of different countries and even micro-spectrometer for composition analysis. The present study focuses on determining the efficacy and capability of light sources of varied spectrum and spectrometer for the examination of black ball, gel and fountain pen inks particularly in questioned under scrutiny written with hand. VSC®-8000/HS have demonstrated to be substantially efficient, robust and an exhaustive nondestructive technique for analysis of documents serving as evidence which have been manipulated including obliterations, additions or overlapping of two or more black ball or fountain pen inks. However, the technique did not provide effective results for black gel pen inks in contrast to black ball and fountain pen inks. Nonetheless, it can effectively harmonize with the standard workflow of a forensic document examiner to ensure qualitative and quantitative facts and figures for the expert testimony.