18 deceased were not collected and tested. The blood collected on cotton swabs found next to the dead bodies at the crime scene were used as reference samples, which is unreliable. Lastly, counsel urged that no laboratory records were submitted – PW-35 mentioned that in the observation sheet details of the samples received and the testing were noted. This sheet was not submitted with the laboratory report. Also, electropherograms were not submitted with the laboratory reports. 34. Turning next to the ballistic reports and the prosecution’s claim that the bullet extracted from Rahul’s foot, and that recovered from Megha’s body were fired from the same weapon, it was argued, that these circumstances were not proved, because of the unreliability with regard to the manner of Rahul’s arrest, doubts about his identity, manner of seizure of the bullet from his foot, its sealing, custody, and production in court. Counsel submitted that the articles were received by the ballistic expert only on 14.07.2011; the ballistics report Ex. P120 is dated 30.07.2011. 35. Doubts were expressed about seals on the items seized from the crime scene, which included the fired cartridges. According to the counsel their consequent matching with the test fire cartridge was unreliable. It was urged that the presence of copper during the chemical analysis of the shoe is unreliable since the shoe was seized at Annapurna PS and the witness Abhay Tiwari was not examined. Further, the live cartridge’s primer cap (seized from the place of occurrence) had fallen during examination by PW-16 Bheem Bahadur who was from the Arms Branch and had sealed the cartridge. He, however, did not say that he had reloaded it. During the ballistics examination however, it was found that Article A-6 contained a live 7.65 mm caliber pistol cartridge which was marked LR1 (in Ex. P120). The description of LR1 states that it is a reloaded live cartridge. The seals of the arms branch on the live bullet were intact when they were sent to the FSL on 13.07.2011 (Ex. P115). These