GENERAL GUIDELINES TO THE POLICE OFFICERS BEFORE VISITING THE SCENE OF CRIME, AFTER ARRIVING AT THE SPOT AND WHILE PREPARING THE ROUGH SKETCH OF THE SCENE Every Police officer who sets out on investigation should, at the first instance, pick up clues at the scene of crime and link the story of the first information report with that of the scene being observed. For that, the following guidelines shall be borne in mind: (a). Before arrival of the scene, the investigation officer should have a plan to (i). establish or fix or confirm the place of occurrence as narrated in the FIR, (ii). confirm and contradict the witnesses, (iii). demoralize the criminal, if already arrested, and (iv). to ensure conviction to the accused person(s). (b). After arrival at the scene he should (i). contact the man who reached the scene first and make enquiries; (ii). ensure that the scene of crime is not interfered with; (iii). not allow any unauthorized person to meddle in the inspection of the scene; (iv). avoid crowding at the spot and all thoughtless interference, as they always result in the destruction of clues; (v). never leave the inspection of scene to his subordinates especially to those who are untrained; (vi). never take anything to be trivial but make his inspection thorough and minute; (vii). Search methodically as stated earlier patiently and in a definite order; (c). Should thoroughly search (i). the spot, (ii). the surroundings, (iii). line of approach of the culprits and (iv). line of departure of the culprits while searching, should pay special attention to: (v). hedges, (vi). walls, (vii). barbed wire and (viii). nearby ponds, etc. while searching for traces, should consider: (ix). the sort of traces which have to be looked for, having regard to the type of crime committed. (x). the places where they are most likely to be found; and (xi). how best, when found, they could be preserved intact and unaltered, till examined by the expert;