Abstract

Documents have played a crucial part in our day-to-day life for ages. Documents contain vital information which can have evidentiary value that can link a criminal to a crime. Sometimes, such documents get destroyed either intentionally or accidentally by means of fre, water, moisture and humidity, dyes and paints, etc. Many a times, criminals try to destroy the valuable documents by setting them on fre in order to hide their criminal activity having wrong intention. Charred document is one such case where the documents under excessive heat become carbonized, brittle and fragile.Te most perplexing problem faced in the area of arson investigation is the handling and preservation of charred documents which ultimately render the decipherment of contents written on it. Tis is due to the obvious reason, that is, its extreme fragile
and brittle nature. Researches have also pointed towards this huge challenge for questioned document examiners to potentially preserve the charred documents for further investigation. Hence, the present paper aims to highlight the ancient and the recent advanced preservation and decipherment techniques of charred documents to summarize it with their pros and cons, so that the need to enhance and develop a better new technique of preservation can be looked into.
 

• 1.   Ardelean E, Melniciuc-Puica N. Fire damaged documents: practical aspects of recovery. Sci Ann Univ Iasi Orthodox Theol. 2015;2:77-90.
• 2.   Thomas AA, Jeridi E, Sharma BK, Mishra VP, Shamsi MA, Khalloufi MA. Study of security features of bank cheques and credit cards and decipherment. In: 2018 7th International Conference on Reliability, Infocom Technologies and Optimization (Trends and Future Directions) (ICRITO); 2018 Aug 29-31; Noida, India. IEEE; 2018. p. 207-12.
• 3.   Moorthy TN, Narayanan K. The study on enhancement of handwritings on selected charred documents using video spectral comparator (VSC). Arab J Forensic Sci Forensic Med. 2016;1(4):406-13.
• 4.   Ethier A, Jasra P. Detection of writing and fingerprints on burnt documents using the video spectral comparator. J Emerg Forensic Sci Res. 2016;1(2):48-53.
• 5.   Jones GA. Decipherment of charred documents. Nature. 1941;147:676-7.
• 6.   Grant J. Deciphering charred documents: some recent work and a new method. Analyst. 1942;67(791):42-7.
• 7.   Black DA. Decipherment of charred documents. J Crim Law Criminol. 1948;38(5):542-6.
• 8.   Bartha A, Duxbury NW. Restoration and preservation of charred documents. Can Soc Forensic Sci J. 1968;1(1):1-4.
• 9.   Tyrrell JF. Decipherment of charred documents. J Crim Law Criminol. 1939;30(2):236-42.
• 10.   Mitchell CA. Documents and their scientific examination: with especial reference to the chemistry involved in cases of suspected forgery, investigation of disputed documents, handwriting, etc. London: Charles Griffin; 1922. p. 83.
• 11.   Gross H. Preserving and deciphering burnt paper. In: Criminal investigation: a practical textbook for magistrates, police officers and lawyers. 5th ed. London: Sweet & Maxwell; 1906.
• 12.   Rohatgi S, Gupta S, Sharma M, Shukla SK. A study to focus on augmentation of pre-existing methodologies for tampered document examination. Res J Pharm Tech. 2017;10(11):4085-9.
• 13.   Gupta AK, Kaushal S. Charred and torn documents. In: Forensic science (Paper No. 8); Questioned document (Module No. 22) [Internet]. New Delhi: e-Pathshala; [cited 2026 Jan 21]. Available from: https://epgp.inflibnet.ac.in/
• 14.   National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science. A forensic guide for crime investigators. New Delhi: NICFS; 2017. Chapter 18, Questioned documents; p. 452.
• 15.   Tidke CR, Kushwaha KPS. Decipherment of ball point pen writings on the charred/burnt paper. Int J Forensic Sci. 2019;2(1):21-4.
• 16.   Davis R. Action of charred paper on the photographic plate and a method of deciphering charred records. Scientific Papers of the Bureau of Standards. 1922;18(454):445-50.
• 17.   Doud D. Charred documents, their handling and decipherment: a summary of available methods for treating burnt papers. J Crim Law Criminol Police Sci. 1953;43(6):812-26.
• 18.   Khasrithong N, Chitaree R. Recovering written contents of a burnt paper by IR reflected photography. Thai J Phys. 2010;6(7):235.
• 19.   Wall HJ, Taylor WD. A new method for the decipherment of charred documents. Nature. 1941;148:340.
• 20.   Grant J. Decipherment of charred documents: some recent work and a new method. Analyst. 1942;67:42-7.
• 21.   Sharma BK, Chand D, Shukla SK, Sharma A. Decipherment of written and printed matter on the charred document using UV and IR under different wavelengths. In: 2020 International Conference on Computation, Automation and Knowledge Management (ICCAKM); 2020 Jan 9-10; Dubai, United Arab Emirates. IEEE; 2020. p. 172-6.