London, April 16: In what could begin a new era for forensic science, the police in Britain have arrested a drug dealer based on fingerprints they found on a WhatsApp image sent by the criminal to his clients.
The photograph showed part of the dealer's hand "and there was potentially a fingerprint," the BBC reported late on Sunday.
The scientific support unit scanned the image into its system but could not find a match because the photograph contained just parts of the middle and bottom of a finger visible while records only keep the top part.
However, other evidence was enough for the police to guess who was behind the drugs operation.
"While the scale and quality of the photograph proved a challenge, the small bits were enough to prove he was the dealer," Dave Thomas from South Wales Police scientific support unit was quoted as saying.
Police arrested a man on a tip-off that said drugs were being sold in Wales. While checking his phone, they found an image of the drug dealer named Elliott Morris holding ecstasy tablets in his palm.
"There was the photograph of the hand holding pills that seemed like it was sent to potential customers saying 'these are my wares, I'm selling these'," Thomas said.
"It has now opened the floodgates and when there is part of a hand on a photograph, officers are sending them in," he added.
According to the police officer, the dealers are using the technology not to get caught and the police need to keep up with advancements.
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Kidnapper arrested in Faridabad, bank manager rescued
Faridabad (PTI): A man was arrested here on Tuesday for allegedly abducting a bank manager for a ransom of Rs 5 lakh, police said.
On April 21, two armed men, including Bhupender (30), kidnapped Satish Kumar from his house in Ballabgarh’s Sector 62. They took him to Himachal Pradesh and demanded a ransom of Rs 50 lakh from his family, they said.
Later, the accused negotiated with Satish's family and asked for Rs 5 lakh for his release. They asked his family to deposit Rs 1 lakh in Satish's account and withdrew the money from different places using his debit card, police said.
The kidnappers asked Satish’s wife to bring the remaining Rs 4 lakh Kelly bypass in Ballabgarh. Police then laid a trap and arrested Bhupender, they said.
Bhupendra revealed that he was a tenant in Satish's house and lived there about 4 months ago. He then hatched a plan with his friend Ravindra to kidnap the bank manager for ransom, a senior police officer said.
He told police that Satish was with Ravindra in Mathura. Following this, a team went there and rescued the victim but the other accused managed to flee, police said.
They said two pistols, three live cartridges, a rope, Satish's vehicle used for kidnapping him and Rs 4 lakh cash were recovered from the kidnappers.
“Our teams are conducting raids to nab Ravindra and others,” said Sube Singh, spokesperson of Faridabad police.
