Police inform HC about vehicles procurement

New Delhi: The Delhi Police told the Delhi High Court on Tuesday that on its directions, it had procured several high-powered motorcycles like Enfield Thunderbird and four-wheelers like Scorpio S5 for efficient and effective policing.

Apart from that, as part of its emergency response support system, the Police Control Room (PCR) vehicles would also have on-board fingerprint scanners, the court was told. The introduction of these technological enhancements in the police force was indicated in a status report filed before Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, pursuant to the court's direction to procure higher engine capacity vehicles with appropriate customisation to make policing "more efficient and effective".

With regard to procurement of high-performance vehicles, the report filed through Delhi government's standing counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra and advocate Chaitanya Gosain said the police had procured 31 Scorpio S5 120-BHP SUVs and five Enfield Thunderbird 500 motorcycles. Besides, it was in the process of procuring 16 more Scorpio cars, 12 Enfield Interceptor 650 CC and seven more Enfield Thunderbird 500 motorcycles.

The other initiatives taken by the Delhi Police include initiating steps for procurement of an "e-beat book" which can scan fingerprints and compare those with the criminal database, setting up of a "state-of-the-art" forensic laboratory at Dwarka here to handle cybercrime cases and establishment of a mobile cyber forensic laboratory, the report said.

The mobile laboratory has portable cyber forensic equipment for data extraction and analysis from the scene of crime, the report said and added that procurement of two cyber forensic vans was under process. There is also a proposal for replacing the existing radio system with an advanced version and the tender for the same would be commissioned in 2020, it said.

The court, in its February 5 order, had also suggested installing electronic sensors in the licensed firearms to monitor the GPS location and usage of such weapons. The February 5 order of the court had come in an anticipatory bail application moved by a man facing a case of illegal possession of firearms.

During the hearing of the case in July 2018, the court had observed that in such cases, whenever any weapon was recovered, no fingerprint was taken from the firearm or the bullets found in it or from the crime scene and the accused always took the defence that they had no connection with the weapon. The police had said there was no specific procedure in place to direct investigating officers or other policemen to take fingerprints from weapons or bullets recovered from crime scenes or the accused.

Taking note of the submission, the court had on July 11, 2018 asked the police what steps could be taken for further enhancing its technical capabilities by providing IT equipment and communication devices up to the beat officers level.