Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology

Sexual offenses including rape and related offenses are dealt in the Indian law under S. 375 and S. 376 Indian Penal Code. All registered and booked cases require medical examination of both victim and accused as a protocol to gather material evidence. The material evidence collected during the medical examination may be a direct evidence to frame the charges and helps the courts of law for convictions. In majority of the cases, it acts as corroborative evidence in ascertaining the charges of rape. Medical examination is followed by collection of vaginal/cervical/anal and perineal swabs in the women, and urethral/perianal swabs in the men. The swabs are subjected for microscopic examination and culture for detection of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) or venereal diseases (VD). In the present study, a prospective analysis of results of forensic microbiological and diagnostic tests done on the samples collected was done. The samples were taken from both female victims and male assailants.