Amit Shah urges J&K police to focus on rights protection

Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said that with decline in terror activities and improvement in security scenario in Jammu and Kashmir, the UT police should now prioritise safeguarding the rights of its citizens and use the provision of trial in absentia in the region.

The home minister was chairing the review meeting on the status of the implementation of the new criminal laws in Jammu and Kashmir. Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and chief minister Omar Abdullah were also present in the meeting. Abdullah attended the meeting though law and order is directly handled by the central government since the erstwhile state was bifurcated into the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh in 2019.

Besides Abdullah and Sinha, top officials of the central government and Jammu and Kashmir government attended the meeting at North Block, officials said.


The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam replaced the colonial era Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act of 1872, respectively.

The new laws came into effect from July 1 last year. The home minister has already reviewed the status of the implementation of the new criminal laws in several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

Shah further stressed on the need to fix responsibility of police officers to expedite the process of filing charge sheets. He said that every police station in Jammu and Kashmir should put the maximum use of the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS) into practice. He said that 100% training of investigating officers regarding the provisions of the new laws should be ensured, at the earliest.