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India’s criminal justice system will be the most advanced in the world in the next five years once all the systems under the three new criminal laws — Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Act — are in place, he said.
“Unless we integrate forensic science with all the stakeholders of the judicial process, we will not benefit. Forensic science should be used for investigation, prosecution, and justice. Now, time has come to go a step forward by adopting forensic science in education,” Shah said.
“When we are moving towards a journey of 100 years of independence with a strong foundation, I can see four challenges in our criminal justice system. Integrating technology in the entire policing system to make it a modern policing system without changing its basic structure is a big challenge before us,” the Union minister said.
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The Union government has taken steps to meet the requirement of more than 9,000 scientific officers and forensic science officers that the country will need to recruit every year, Shah said.
“We have worked on three challenges — creation of human resources through NFSU, creation of a technological database, completion of data integration and creation of software using Artificial Intelligence and making them legal,” he said.
Integrating the criminal justice system, technology and forensic investigation was another big challenge, Shah further said.
“I would request the students (of forensic science) to study the three laws minutely. We have given a very important place to forensic science on legal basis in investigation, prosecution and judicial system, and a very big area is going to emerge from the career point of view,” he said.
As the forms and methods of crimes change, the police need to stay ahead of criminals, the minister noted.
“Perhaps (freedom fighter and former Union minister) K M Munshi once said that police should stay two steps ahead of criminals. I would like to say that police need to stay two generations ahead of crime and criminals. The generation of technology is much faster than human generation. If our system stays two generations ahead of crime, then we shall succeed in preventing crime,” Shah added.
Efforts should also be made to bring uniformity in policy and rules of technology at the global level, he said.
Technology is the answer for making justice available, accessible and affordable, Shah said, adding that the new laws were introduced keeping this in mind.
Behavioural science plays as important a role in preventing crime as strong administration and a good justice system, he said.
The new criminal laws make a visit by forensic officers to a scene of crime mandatory if the prescribed punishment for the offence exceeds seven years, and this provision is meant to help investigation, prosecution as well as the delivery of justice and increase the conviction rate, the minister said.
Naming the National Education Policy 2020, conversion of the Gujarat Forensic Sciences University into National Forensic Sciences University and the passage of the new criminal laws as among the Narendra Modi government’s achievements, he said they could not be seen in isolation.
“We have become the world’s biggest democracy and its foundation is deeper than `pataal’ (netherworld). We have seen a transfer of power without shedding a drop of blood, and the people’s trust in democracy cannot be questioned,” he said.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has worked hard on creating a huge database using technology in the last five years, Shah said, adding that more than eight crore e-FIRs have been registered, and all the police stations in the country except seven stations based in hilly regions have been connected through technology. A solution is being worked out to connect the remaining police stations, he said.
Data of more than 15 crore prosecution cases has been made available online in every Indian language, database of two crore prisoners has been compiled using the e-prison system, Shah said, adding that 19 lakh forensic results of the last three years too have been made available online.
Online databases of narcotic, sexual and child offenders have been created, and terrorism cases of the last 25 years have been made available online, he said.
“We are developing a software using AI to develop analysis of all kinds of data. I can say with confidence, and I have said this in Parliament, that the entire system will run on these three (new criminal) laws,” he said.
As many as nine campuses of NFSU have been set up so far, and another nine are in the pipeline, the home minister said, adding that a campus has also been opened in Uganda.