Need for change as rate of conviction pitiable: Shah

NEW DELHI: Union home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said the conviction rate in criminal cases in India was “very pitiful” and old police techniques such as administering third-degree to suspects and phone tapping would not give the desired results in curbing crime.

Shah was addressing the top brass of police organisations during the 49th Raising Day event of the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD), a think tank under the home ministry. He said forensic evidence was crucial for police investigators to ensure convictions against criminals.

The minister said he had asked the BPRD to prepare a plan to have 'modus operandi bureaus' at the national and state levels and that the government was mulling making forensic evidence compulsory in all criminal cases where the quantum of punishment was seven years or more.


Shah said he had asked the BPRD also to initiate a countrywide “consultative process” for effecting changes in the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and IPC.

“All suggestions should be documented sent to the ministry. There has been no change for a long time in CrPC and IPC and we should go forward on this,” he said.