Over 500,000 offenders in India's first narco files

India's first registry of narcotics traffickers has recorded more than 500,000 names within the first month of its launch.

National Integrated Database on Arrested Narco-offenders (Nidaan) - a database of arrested narcotics offenders from states and union territories, developed by Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) - aims to profile each narco-offender by integrating with Inter Operable Justice System (ICJS) and Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System (CCTNS), officials said.

"It is part of the narcotics coordination mechanism (NCORD) portal that was launched by Union home minister Amit Shah on July 30 in Chandigarh during the national conference on 'Drug trafficking and national security'," a senior home ministry official told ET. The person is not authorised to speak on behalf of the ministry and hence requested not to be named.


The home ministry had in 2018 started a similar registry for sexual offenders which now has more than 1.1 million names.

The narco traffickers' database is only accessible to law enforcement agencies and state police for investigation and monitoring purposes, officials said. It includes names and aliases, travel and immigration documents, employment information, professional licenses, vehicle information, criminal history, photograph, fingerprints, DNA sample, AADHAR card number, court orders and voter ID of the offenders.

Names of all offenders booked by all drug law enforcement agencies throughout India in the last 10 years will be updated on the registry, officials said. "Nidaan is an integrated database on all arrested narco-offenders lodged in prisons," a second official said. It will include details of "those directly or indirectly involved in production, manufacture, possession, sale, purchase, transport, warehousing, use, consumption, import inter-state, export inter-state, import into India, and export from India of any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance", the person said. "It derives its data from e-prisons and Seizure Information Management System."

Due to the multiplicity of stakeholders in drug administration mechanisms in India, the government had created NCORD, a four-tier mechanism with NCB being the national nodal agency, in 2016.