PRAKASH NISHAD @ KEWAT ZINAK NISHAD v. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA [SANJAY KAROL, J.] which later on was clarified in Rajendra Prahladrao Wasnik v. State of Maharashtra5 (three-Judges) that the said provision is not mandatory in nature. It was observed that it only requires a positive call to be taken in respect of the need to follow the provision or not. The bench held“49…There must be reasonable grounds for believing that the examination of a person will afford evidence as to the commission of an offence of rape or an attempt to commit rape. If reasonable grounds exist, then a medical examination as postulated by Section 53-A(2) CrPC must be conducted and that includes examination of the accused and description of material taken from the person of the accused for DNA profiling…” (Emphasis Supplied) 58. Here, a child of the tender age of six was assaulted brutally and killed. The appellant was arrested on suspicion of having committed the crime. The police proceeded in accordance therewith and were supposed to have made discoveries as per the statements made by the appellant in custody, then in what manner can it be said that, at the time when such a positive call was required to be made by the authorities, reasonable grounds did not exist for the compliance with Section 53A to be a must? This, in the view of this Court is a glaring lapse in the investigation of this crime, for a six-year-old child was sexually assaulted on both of the private parts of her body. Medical examination of the appellant would have resulted into ascertainment of such assault. 59. As has been hitherto observed, there is no clarity of who took the samples of the appellant. In any event, record reveals that one set of samples taken on 14.6.2010 were sent for chemical analysis on 16.6.2010 and the second sample taken, a month later on 20.7.2010 is sent the very same day. Why there exist these differing degrees of promptitude in respect of similar, if not the same- natured scientific evidence, is unexplained. 60. We may observe that the Maharashtra Police Manual6, when speaking of the integrity of scientific evidence in Appendix XXIV states“The integrity of exhibits and control samples must be safeguarded from the moment of seizure upto the completion of examination in the laboratory. This is best done by immediately packing, sealing 175 A B C D E F G 5 (2019) 12 SCC 460 Av ai la b l e h e r e - h t t p s : / / ww w. ma h ap o li c e . go v. in / u p l o a d s /a ct s _ r u l e s / MumbaiPoliceManualPartIII.pdf 6 H