The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) mandates compulsory audiovisual recording of search and seizure in each criminal case and mandatory forensic examination in all cases where an offence attracts punishment of seven years or more.
For this purpose, the Union Home Ministry is testing an app called eSakshya, which will have tools for recording crime scene, search and seizure, and uploading of those files. The police official will have to upload a selfie after the procedure is complete. Each recording could be maximum four minutes long and several such files could be uploaded for each First Information Report (FIR), reports The Hindu.
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 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 eSakshya for which good Internet speed is required,” explained the official.
Another police officer cautioned that the sanctity of the chain of evidence submission will have to be adhered to, or 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 of 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,” said the officer.