Implementing new criminal laws proving to be an uphill task in rural U.P., say police

Implementing new criminal laws an uphill task in rural U.P. amid technological barriers, shortage of forensic teams and local opposition, say police

To register their first case under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), the newly implemented criminal law, officers at Rehra police station in Uttar Pradesh struggled through the night just to download the set of documents that stipulate how the law is to be put to practical use.

The dilapidated police station, located in a remote village a short distance from Amroha, was the first in the State to file a case under the new law on July 1. The FIR was registered under Section 106 (causing death by negligence) of the BNS — earlier Section 304 of the now-scrapped Indian Penal Code — after 48-year-old Jagpal Singh was electrocuted by a stray wire while working in the fields.

“Our staff toiled the whole night just to figure out how to download the booklet and print it in order to register the first case. We managed it, but we don’t know how we will be able to file the next few cases,” said the inspector in charge of the police station, which is located smack dab in the middle of an open field dotted with deep puddles. Outside, muddy roads lead to sugarcane fields, where most of the villagers earn their living by farming through the kharif season.

He added that ever since the new criminal laws — the BNS, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam — replaced the old ones — the Indian Penal Code, 1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 — training officers to implement them in a technologically-challenged terrain is proving to be a fairly monumental task.

“During training, we were told that the CCTNS (Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems) software would prove to be of help, but to access it, we require mobile data or Wi-Fi, which is hard to come by,” he said.

According to an officer who wished not to be named, most policemen in the rural belt don’t even possess functional mobile phones and will be unable to record video evidence, which is a must under the new laws. While Additional Director General (Training and Headquarters) Sunil Kumar Gupta said U.P. Police is in the process of procuring new equipment including tablets, mobile phones and cameras, the officer said that to train officers to use these “fancy new devices” will be another uphill task.

Rakesh Kumar Mishra, SP (Crime) Bulandshahr, said that curiously, in rural U.P., locals don’t know what murder, rape or cheating is, but only know the crime by sections of the now-scrapped colonial era laws.