Abstrait

STUDY ON EXTRUSION MARK PATTERN IN TRANSPARENT PLASTIC BAGS AND ITS STABILITY WHILE ESTABLISHING ORIGIN OF PLASTIC BAGS DURING FORENSIC INVESTIGATION

T. Nataraja Moorthy and Hafizah Harun

Small plastic bags are known to have been mainly used by drug peddlers for distributing illicit drugs. This research is aimed to study the intra batch and inter-batch stability of extrusion mark pattern in transparent plastic bags i.e. the pattern of extrusion lines produced in transparent plastic bags during manufacturing process. The plastics bags were purchased as packets in retail outlets and collected from a consented plastic manufacturing factory in the known machine. The result of the study on extrusion mark pattern presented here relates to the comparison of the characteristic extrusion line pattern in plastic bags belonging to the same batch as well as different batches over a period of one year. The results indicated that extrusion mark pattern in the plastic bags revealed stability both on intra batch as well as inter-batch basis that can be useful for establishing the origin.