Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said criminals must not be allowed to escape, urging law-enforcement agencies to use modern tools to control crime. He was speaking at the All-India Fingerprint Conference in Delhi.
Shah said fingerprint records are among the most effective tools to secure convictions in criminal cases. He noted that fingerprints play a key role in ensuring punishment for offenders and in collecting scientific evidence during investigations.
Pointing to the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS), Shah said the platform is currently being used only to about 10% of its potential. He called for expanding its use beyond identifying suspects and for increasing data collection by uploading fingerprints gathered from every crime scene.
He said wider and systematic use of such tools would make it easier to identify offenders and prevent them from slipping through the system. Shah also said new laws include provisions needed to streamline investigations and ease the judiciary’s workload, and stressed that convictions should be ensured within three years.
