Effect of soaking on gel pen writings: A forensic examination

Forensic document examiners daily meet new type of challenges during document examination. Many of documents, sometimes in drastic conditions such as torned, burnt, shredded and soaked in some liquid are faced by experts for examination. Sometimes the criminal tries to hide the documents in water tank, pond etc. Very less research work has been reported on documents in soaked conditions. So, the study has been carried out to analyze the effects of water soaking on gel point pen ink writings on different surface at different time intervals. The samples of writings with different brands of gel pens were prepared on different types of paper in the forensic science laboratories (documents division) to assess the effect of different liquid mediums (acidic, basic, and neutral) on to gel pen writings and the paper surfaces.