NFSU set to be roped in, separate cadre cleared for 3 new criminal laws in Chandigarh
The new criminal laws emphasise digitisation of the justice delivery process, right from filing of first information reports to the charge sheet in court and judgment.
The Chandigarh administration will soon have a specialist cadre of 200 constables with engineering degrees in computer science, who will provide support once the three new criminal laws are implemented, a top official said.
“Our proposal for the 200 IT-trained constables with minimum B Tech or M Tech degrees in computer science has been approved. The recruitment process will take three months and they will then undergo nine months of training,” said Praveer Ranjan, Chandigarh’s director general of police.
As the recruitment and training of these new constables will take at least 12 months, Chandigarh police is visiting the National Forensic Science University (NFSU) in Gujarat the coming weekto hire at least 75 interns, who will provide IT support in the interim, he said.
The new criminal laws emphasise digitisation of the justice delivery process, right from filing of first information reports to the charge sheet in court and judgment. While states will be given time to prepare their infrastructure for implementing the laws, Chandigarh will be the first city to implement it across all police stations, prisons and courts, once they are notified by the government.
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“The NFSU interns will help our people feed electronic data, maintain it, work on the new CCTNS system once it is implemented,” Ranjan said. “They will be working with our people until the batch of constables join the force.”
Under the CCTNS (Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System), police stations across India are interlinked under a common application software for investigation, data analytics, research and providing citizen services, such as reporting and tracking of complaints, request for antecedent verifications by police, etc. Under the new laws, citizens from anywhere in the country can log in to the internet and file a complaint irrespective of the jurisdiction, which must be taken up by police if a crime has taken place.
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The laws – Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya — which seek to replace colonial era Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code and Indian Evidence act, were passed by Parliament last month and have been approved by the President. Under the new laws, electronic evidence has been made a primary evidence. Police will have to record videos of crime spots, and also video graph statements of people linked to the case, which will be used as evidence during trial
Delhi police and other state police forces have also approached the university for graduates to help them in the new process, an official at the NFSU said, seeking anonymity. “Hundreds of our students will be working with different police forces once the laws are implemented. Through the Bureau of Police Research and Development, we are in touch with them. Every force has different needs,” he said.
