A new mobile phone application, called e-Sakshaya, will be rolled out soon for police personnel to collect audio-visual evidence, upload photographs of crime scenes or witnesses, and generate immutable SID packets (secure, geo-tagged, time-stamped evidence with hash verification). This will strengthen the chain of custody and admissibility of evidence, according to a senior police officer.

The application was developed by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to capture audio and video evidence and generate hash reports with time-stamp. It has an inbuilt system for generating certificates in the prescribed format. This is being implemented through the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) for the use of investigation officers.

Training completed

Every investigation officer should record all video evidence, along with audio evidence, wherever necessary, and photo evidence as required under provisions of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, the police officer said. The application is loaded in the mobile phones of all investigation officers, including head constables and inspectors. All of them have been trained in using the application, he added.

Block chain technology is being used to ensure data integrity and trustworthiness. The application records videos, photographs, and witness details on the scene of crime, and search and seizure by a police officer. The proceedings of search and search would be recorded and forwarded to courts.

Unforeseen situations

Whenever eSakshya is unavailable owing to unforeseen situations such as lack of connectivity, the audio-video recording should be carried out through other available means. In such cases, Part-A certificate should be issued manually by the police personnel or the videographers who recorded the video on their device and Part-B certificate should be issued by an expert notified under Section 329 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, according to the Tamil Nadu Criminal Procedure Rules.

The investigation officer should link SID packets with the First Information Report number/General Diary (GD) number and the case number register (CNR) number. The evidence, once uploaded, would go to the magistrates concerned and the courts may view the evidence in the case information system application/Sakshya portal on the Inter-Operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS), officials said.

The ICJS has been established to make the justice delivery system more effective by integrating main parts of criminal justice: the police (Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems), courts (e-Courts), jails (e-Prisons), forensic labs (e-Forensic), and prosecution (e-Prosecution).