19 august 2024 : The Jammu and Kashmir Police have encountered challenges related to Internet connectivity while implementing three new criminal laws. Consequently, they have requested the Union Home Ministry to whitelist Reliance Jio for use in police stations throughout the Union Territory, as reported by The Indian Express.
This matter was addressed during a review meeting led by Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, where Chief Secretaries and Directors General of all Union Territories discussed the initial difficulties in executing the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, which were introduced on July 1. The Director General of J&K Police, R R Swain, attended the meeting.
A senior official from J&K indicated that in many regions, only cable lines from Airtel and BSNL are available, while remote areas are served solely by Jio’s Optical Fibre. “In the applications provided by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), police personnel stationed in remote locations face issues when attempting to upload documents, as the app does not recognize the Jio network. We have raised this concern in the meeting and are working with NIC officials to find a resolution,” the official stated.
The Union Home Ministry has directed the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to deploy a technical team to Jammu and Kashmir to address the difficulties encountered in synchronizing large audio-visual files with e-Sakshya, a mobile application designed to assist law enforcement in documenting crime scenes. Additionally, the team will tackle technical challenges associated with services such as e-signature, SMS notifications, Nyaya Setu, Nyaya Shruti, and e-court functionalities.
An official acquainted with the situation stated, “The Centre has also instructed that the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh should collaboratively address the issues they are facing with the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court.”
In the meeting, which lasted for around two hours, DG Swain said their investigation officers are facing difficulties in accessing lockers under the e-Sakshya app, for which the network (Jio) being used by the police stations in J&K needs to be whitelisted.
Swain informed that the availability of lesser bandwidth is also creating problems in downloading files. Some of their issues have been resolved, while the other issues are being actively addressed by the NIC,” the officer said.
In the meeting that lasted for over two hours, Additional DGP of Ladakh S D Singh Jamwal said they are facing some data synchronization challenges with the e-Sakshya app.
“In the meeting, Jamwal also informed that the J&K and Ladakh High Court already has a video conferencing mechanism for conducting trials, which they will align with e-Sakshya. They have also raised the necessity for mock sessions with the judiciary to implement the e-Courts system,” the officer said.
An MHA official said the NIC had developed applications, e-Sakshya, Nyay Shruti and e-Summon, for facilitating videography and photography of crime scenes, judicial hearings and delivery court summons electronically under the new criminal laws.
The e-Sakshya (e-evidence) is a mobile-based application which allows police to record the scene of crime, search and seizure in a criminal case and upload the file on the cloud-based platform. Every recording is around four minutes long and several such files would be uploaded for each FIR.
“eSakshya App, which facilitates videography and photography of crime scenes, along with onboarding documents have been shared with police departments of all the States and UTs. All the States/UTs have tested it. Nyay Shruti is an app, which facilitates judicial hearings through electronic means, along with onboarding documents that have been shared with all the States/UTs and e-Committee of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India for implementation at the courts. The e-Summon app facilitates delivery of court summons electronically,” the official said.