Delhi Police Uses Facial Recognition Technology To Probe JNU Violence

Delhi police have initiated a probe into Jawaharlal Nehru University violence. The crime branch after taking over the investigations is using facial recognition technology to identify masked men involved in the violence. For the past week, several protests are being held to support students. Aishe Ghosh, President of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union was severely injured in the attack.

Over 40-50 masked men entered the university and assaulted students present inside the campus. Hostel rooms were ransacked and student unions across India started to protest against the violence. Several celebrities raised their voice against the violence and demanded strict punishment against people involved in the attack.

Meanwhile, the Delhi crime branch has collected footage of the incident and have launched their investigations. CCTV footage from the university has been collected to ascertain people involved in the attack. “People seen in the video are masked. We are checking our Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) database to identify people involved in the attack,” said a senior Delhi police officer. “We have closed in on few accused involved in the crime. We will summon them and verify the footage with their facial features,” said the officer.

It has to be noted that Delhi police has initiated to develop their database by collecting data during mass protests and from their existing criminal database. Police officers are armed with face recognition cameras during protests. Data of which is transferred in a system that can be used to identify miscreants involved in violent protests.

Facial recognition technology is widely used abroad but it has been brought to use widely in India recently. “Facial recognition technology is very helpful in tracking miscreants. It can also be evidence used to prosecute a culprit. This helps the state to increase their conviction rate. It often happens that during mass protests, the mob indulges in criminal activities and run away from the crime scene. This makes the task of the police department very difficult to track these culprits. But with technology, police can now track the culprits and produce them before the court,” said Ritesh Bhatia, Cyber Crime Security Expert.

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