Lamenting the “very pitiful” conviction rate in criminal cases in the country, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said the era of age-old police techniques like administering third degree to suspects and phone tapping are over as they do not yield the desired results in curbing crime.
Addressing the top brass of Central Police Organisations during the 49th Raising Day event of the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) here, Shah exhorted the use of forensic evidence by police investigators to clinch convictions against criminals.
Hinting at an overhaul of policing techniques, the minister said that he has asked the BPRD to prepare a plan to have ‘modus operandi bureaus’ at the national and state-level and that the government is mulling making forensic evidence compulsory in all criminal cases where the quantum of punishment is seven years or more.
He said he has asked the BPRD, a police think tank under the Home Ministry, to initiate a countrywide “consultative process” for effecting changes in CrPC (Criminal Procedure Code) and IPC (Indian Penal Code).
“All suggestions should be documented and recommendations should be sent to the ministry. There has been no change for a long time in CrPC and IPC and we should go forward on this,” he said.
“The conviction rate is very pitiful in the true sense. It cannot go like this in these times. This needs to be corrected and this can only be corrected when a probe is supported by forensic evidence,” he said.
He further said, “If a charge sheet is supported by forensic evidence, then there are not many options before the judge and the defence lawyer. Automatically, the conviction rate will improve.”
The minister asserted that a good law and order environment in the country is essential to realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of making India a USD 5 trillion economy and getting the country a place among top three economies of the world.