The Karnataka government has empowered the police officers (SP and DCP rank officers) to order collection of blood, DNA, iris scan and voice samples of prisoners for effective surveillance and prevention of crimes.
The Karnataka assembly, on Friday, passed the Identification of Prisoners (Karnataka Amendment) Bill 2021, to keep tabs on habitual offenders and to contain crime rate in the state.
Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, who piloted the bill, said, "Earlier, we used to collect only the footprints and photographs of the convict. But with advancement in technology, we intend to collect the blood, DNA, iris scan and voice sample of only those convicts imprisoned for a term of more than one month. Earlier, it was restricted to convicts serving rigorous imprisonment of one year or more. We have empowered the superintendents of police and deputy commissioners of police to order the collection of samples which was earlier only with the magistrates. The records (measures) collected will be destroyed on lapse of 10 years after the release from the prison."
After some members raised concerns over breach of right to privacy of undertrials, the home minister clarified that the samples or measures of only convicts and habitual offenders would be collected and not that of undertrials.
Congress MLA Tanveer Sait questioned the need for collecting the records when the Aadhar biometric data was already available with the government. Sait also expressed concern over scores of "innocent people" languishing in jails for years pending trial. "These issues need to be redressed on priority too," said Sait.
"The government intends to create database of biometrics. But it is not an easy task as we lack the scientific infrastructure at the district level to collect, store and access these samples used for forensic investigations. We need cyber security system to safeguard the data and we need to examine if it violates the provisions of right to privacy," said Congress MLA Priyank Kharge.
Former assembly speaker Ramesh Kumar cautioned that the forensic labs were still very "primitive" and the state was still relying on Hyderabad and Kolkata for handwriting verification in forgery cases.
"We already have a criminal tracking system and this move will help in speedy identification of the criminals," said Jnanendra.
