DHARWAD/HUBBALLI : Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah said on Saturday that changes will be made to the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and Evidence Act with help from forensic and other crime detection experts with an aim to improve the conviction rate in the country. After laying the foundation for the seventh campus of the National Forensic Science University at UAS campus on Saturday, Shah said that India is the only country which has an exclusive university for studying forensic sciences. In the next five years, India will be on top in terms of forensic expertise, he predicted.
After Delhi, Karnataka is the state with a good record of immediate FSL expert visit to the crime scene which helps in early detection of cases in a scientific way. These days criminals are also using technology which underscores the need for upgrading forensic expertise to control the increasing crime rate, he added.
‘Centre planning to make forensic evidence must for all offences’
“In the days to come, visits by FSL experts to the scene of crime will be made mandatory across the country. A few initiatives like recording fingerprints and other details of criminals have already been taken”, Shah added.
Earlier, in Hubballi, Shah said the Union government is contemplating making forensic evidence mandatory for all offences attracting punishment of more than six years. He said this move would require at least 50,000 trained human resources and also provide employment opportunities to the youth. To meet this demand, the seventh campus of the National Forensic Science University is being set up at Dharwad in the north Karnataka region, he added.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that a decade ago cybercrime was unheard of but now there is a legislation for it. Technology must be far more upgraded than what the criminals use, he said.Bommai said that in the past it took several years to get the FSL report which gave enough time for criminals to escape. He said when he was the home minister of the state, two regional FSLs were sanctioned, besides upgrading the FSL in Bengaluru at a cost of Rs 30 crore. Bommai added that the services of the new varsity in Karnataka will be available to all states.