New Delhi :Union Home and Cooperation Minister, Amit Shah chaired the 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” at Kevadia, Gujarat today. The meeting was attended by Members of Parliament, Ministers of State for Home Shri Nityanand Rai, Shri Ajay Kumar Mishra, Shri Nishith Pramanik and Union Home Secretary along with senior officials of Ministry of Home Affairs, NCRB and National Forensic Science University. 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.
The Union Home Minister said that the Central Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri 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. The Ministry of Home Affairs under the guidance of the Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah is committed to achieving the conviction rate of up to 90% and providing a citizen friendly and effective criminal justice system in the country.
Shri Amit 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 that the Modi government in collaboration with the State Governments is working on a three pronged approach to reforms in Police Investigation, Prosecution and Forensics. He said that this is the right time to focus on technology based and evidence based investigation to achieve the targeted conviction rate.
Shri Shah emphasized on capacity building of constables upto high level police personnel in use of advanced testing techniques. He called for the establishment of an independent Directorate of Prosecution and an independent Directorate of Forensic Science in each State/UT through the proposed comprehensive amendments to the Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code and the Indian Evidence Act. Shri Shah said that the Modi government is also working towards making forensic investigation mandatory in all cases of offenses punishable with imprisonment for more than 6 years.
The Union Home Minister briefed the members of the Committee about the steps taken by the Central Government towards capacity building required to implement the proposed reforms. He said that 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 organized to attract the expertise and innovation of the youth in new technologies. The National Forensic Science University 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 NFSU. Shri Shah said that a Modus Operandi Bureau has also been set up to identify the pattern of crime for prevention of crime.
Shri Amit Shah 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. He said that steps are also being taken to standardize forensic equipment, instrument calibration, Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) in all FSLs in the country for high quality forensic results.
The members of the committee thanked the Union Home Minister for raising an important topic like ‘Forensic Science’ in the meeting of the Committee and gave their suggestions. Shri NK Premachandran, Shri Kunwar Danish Ali, Professor (Dr.) Ram Shankar Katheria, Shri CM Ramesh, Shri Rajendra Agarwal, Smt. Locket Chatterjee, Shri Vijay Kumar Hansdak, Shri Neeraj Shekhar, Shri PP Choudhary, Shri KC Ramamurthy, Shri Naba (Hira) Kumar Sarania, Shri K Ravindra Kumar and Shri. K G Madhav participated.
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