Centre committed to achieve 90% conviction rate in crime cases, says Shah

PTI, Jun 26, 2022, 7:45 PM IST

The Union Home Ministry is committed to achieving the conviction rate of up to 90 per cent and providing a citizen-friendly and effective criminal justice system in the country, Home Minister Amit Shah said on Sunday.

He also said the Central government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi attaches utmost importance to the internal and external security of the country and is committed to public welfare by strengthening the systems for crime detection and prevention and effective law enforcement.

He said this addressing a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Home Affairs on the topic ‘Forensic Science Capabilities: Strengthening for Time bound and Scientific Investigation’ here, an official statement said.

The home ministry is committed to achieving the conviction rate of up to 90 per cent and providing a citizen-friendly and effective criminal justice system in the country, he said.

The home minister called for the establishment of an independent Directorate of Prosecution and an independent Directorate of Forensic Science in each state and Union Territory through the proposed comprehensive amendments to the Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code and the Indian Evidence Act.

He said the Modi government is working towards making forensic investigation mandatory in all cases of offenses punishable with imprisonment for more than six years.

The meeting reviewed the forensic science capabilities available in the country, especially keeping in view the increasing dependence of the criminal justice system on forensic investigation.

Shah stressed on the need for investigating agencies to be one step ahead of crimminals in view of the use of technology by them and said the Centre in collaboration with state governments is working on a three-pronged approach to reforms in police investigation, prosecution and forensic. He said this is the right time to focus on technology based and evidence based investigation to achieve the targeted conviction rate.

The home minister emphasised capacity building of constables upto high level police personnel in use of advanced testing techniques. He briefed the members of the committee about the steps taken by the central government towards capacity building required to implement the proposed reforms.

Shah said the National Defense University has been established for training manpower of law-enforcement agencies to train them in the use of new technology to combat crime, especially cyber crime, dark-net etc.

Apart from this, hackathons are also being organised to attract the expertise and innovation of the youth in new technologies, he said. The National Forensic Science University (NFSU) has been established to provide trained manpower for the forensic sector and the central government has requested the states to affiliate at least one college in each state with the NFSU. Shah said a modus operandi bureau has also been set up to identify the pattern of crime for prevention of crime.

He informed the members that the central government is providing funds to strengthen the forensic infrastructure across the country including setting up of mobile forensic science units in each district, and these units will serve at least three blocks in a district. The MPs who attended the meeting include NK Premachandran, Kunwar Danish Ali, Ram Shankar Katheria, CM Ramesh, Shri Rajendra Agarwal, Locket Chatterjee, Neeraj Shekhar, PP Choudhary, KC Ramamurthy, Naba Sarania, K Ravindra Kumar and K G Madhav.