Ahead of roll-out of the new criminal laws, Union Home Ministry tests eSakhsya App

Contact Counsellor

CategoryPolity

Last Updated27/06/2024

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is testing eSakshya (e-evidence), a mobile-phone application to help police record scenes of crime, search and seizure in a criminal case and upload the file on the cloud-based platform.

The police official will have to upload a selfie after the procedure is complete.
Each recording could be a maximum four minutes long and several such files could be uploaded for each First Information Report (FIR), according to the details shared with State police departments.
The Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) that replaces the Indian Penal Code, 1860; the Bharatiya Sakshya (BS) which replaces the Indian Evidence Act, 1872; and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) that replaces the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 are all set to come into force from July.

The BNSS mandates compulsory audiovisual recording of search and seizure in each criminal case and mandatory forensic examination in all cases where an offense attracts punishment of seven years or more.
Procuring hardware and cloud space is an expensive affair and many States do not have enough resources, adding that it will also help uniformity in investigations, thereby increasing the conviction rate.
The mobile application developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) will be available to all police stations which register and download the app.
A senior government official said the app was under final stages of trial and the police were given two options.
If there is a connectivity issue, the police can record the crime scene on their own device such as personal mobile phones and generate a hash value, come back to the police station and upload the file.
The other method is they can directly upload through eSakhsya for which good Internet speed is required.
Another police officer cautioned that the sanctity of the chain of evidence submission will have to be adhered to, else, it could benefit an accused.
Many accused escape the clutches of law due to procedural infirmities.
The new laws make everything digital; if there is slightest issue in procuring digital evidence, it could lead to criminals walking free.
Forensic evidence is not always challenged on the grounds of quality but on the chain of command.