DHARWAD: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday emphasised the importance of integrating forensic sciences investigation with the criminal justice system to increase the conviction rate.
“The crime rate has been increasing significantly as criminals are several steps ahead of the police, be it hawala transaction, border intrusion, narcotics, cyber crime or the crimes against women. Crime prevention is not possible until the police remain ahead of the criminals. To attain this goal, the first condition is to increase the conviction ratio. But unless the investigation is recorded scientifically, you cannot punish any criminal and hence, for this, any crime that holds a punishment for six years or more should be studied by forensic science”, Amit Shah during the stone laying ceremony of the ninth campus of the National Forensic Science Centre (NFSC) at Dharwad.
He further exuded confidence that in the next five years, India will have the highest number of scientific experts in the world. “I can confidently and with utmost trust say that after five years, India will be the country to have the highest number of experts in forensic science because the Forensic Science University is unique”, he said.
The Home Minister expressed his delight and highlighted that Karnataka is the second state in the country, after the national capital Delhi, which has mandated forensic visits for the crimes holding punishment for over six years. “I believe this will improve crime detection and its conviction,” he added.
Later, in his address, Shah announced that they would soon bring reforms to the Evidence Act. “We will soon change the Evidence Act. We will bring change to the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and the Evidence Act to ensure punishments for crimes on scientific grounds so that the criminal can be punished with all the observations of forensic science,” he said.
“We have to increase our conviction rate by integrating the investigations of forensic science with the criminal justice system. We should also make the involvement of forensic science mandatory for certain heinous crimes”, he said, adding that the government has taken up several decisions in the area of forensic science besides the upgradation of CFSL in different parts of the country.
Earlier in the day, he encouraged the students to work for the country and advised them to utilize opportunities provided by the Centre to make the country number one in the world.
“If you can’t sacrifice your life for the country, then live your life for your nation and make it the number one country in the world. Prime Minister Modi has given you all opportunities to do that”, Amit Shah said addressing the students at ‘Amrit Mahotsav’ at the BVB Engineering College in Hubballi.
The Home Minister elaborated on patent application forms and said that by 2013-14, the Centre used to receive 3,000 patent applications of which 211 used to get registration. “However, in 2021-22 we have received one lakh applications, of which 24,000 have been registered, thus showing how our youth is moving forward smartly in the area of research,” he added.
Shah also advised the students to move out of the traditional mentality and framework and encouraged them to “think new, be brave, and move forward”. (ANI)