Govt setting up high-tech platform under IB to track new age criminals

Security and intelligence agencies will soon be provided with a new platform which is technologically advanced, secure and helpful in dealing with new age criminals and anti-social elements, officials said on Wednesday.

The new platform will have information about crimes and criminals and can be accessed by police stations and different investigating agencies across the country on real-time basis with the Intelligence Bureau playing the role of the nodal agency.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday took stock of the progress of work on the project at a high-level meeting of the empowered steering group of police technology, a home ministry official said.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Director of Intelligence Bureau Arvinda Kumar and other top officials of security agencies attended the meeting.

The concept of adopting future technologies was mooted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the DGPs conference held in Lucknow last November.

In that meeting, a high-powered police technology mission was constituted under the chairmanship of the home minister.

The prime minister had favoured analysis of police-related incidents and to develop case studies to make an institutionalised learning mechanism and suggested interoperable technologies that could benefit police forces in India.

Tuesday's meeting was also attended by DRDO chairperson G Satheesh Reddy, NTRO chairman Anil Dhasmana, CBI Director Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, BSF Director General Pankaj Singh, CRPF Director General Kuldiep Singh and Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana among others, another official said.

The central government already has a dedicated platform for registration of all FIRs. The Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) has been implemented in all 16,347 police stations in the country. Officials said 100 per cent FIRs are being registered by 99 per cent of police stations.

Besides, the home ministry has a National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO) where details of more than 10.69 lakh sexual offenders in the country and their profiles are available to the law enforcement agencies on real time to probe new offences.

The government has already prepared the NatGrid, which is having data related to all immigration entry and exit, banking and financial transactions, credit card purchases, telecom, individual tax payers, air flyers, train travellers besides others to generate intelligence inputs.

In the first phase, 10 users agencies and 21 service providers are being connected with the NATGRID.

The 10 agencies which will be able to access the NATGRID data on real time basis are: Intelligence Bureau (IB), Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), Directorate General of Central Excise and Intelligence (DGCEI) and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

Initially, no state agencies will be given direct access to the NatGrid data.