Police lacks electronic support to solve theft cases, says Delhi High Court

A Delhi court has expressed concerns over lack of support system with cops for surveillance which hampers them in solving theft cases involving mobile phones and laptops.

The court said it has also surfaced that no protocol or training has been given to these officials about procedures of using electronic gadgets including the MAC ID of laptop on surveillance and asked Deputy Commissioner of Police (north)about details of memorandum of procedure prepared in this regard.

"Due to lack of support system in respect of electronic surveillance, the IOs are facing problem in apprehending the unknown offenders and thefts are unstoppable at ISBT.

In view of these exigencies, the DCP concerned is directed to file a detailed status report before this court...," Metropolitan Magistrate Abhilash Malhotra said, adding the report be filed by December 13, the next date of hearing. The court directed the senior officer to also give details regarding the training given to officials in the lower rung on electronic surveillance probe of gadgets as ordered by it earlier in May this year.

The magistrate also sought details of any specialised IT professional/ trained staff/ department which is there to assist the investigating officer (IO) at police station level during the investigation on technological issues. "In many other cases, it is observed that electronic gadgets including laptops are stolen from ISBT by unknown offenders. In those cases, the investigation was dealt by the officers of the rank of constable, head constable and assistant sub inspector.

"It is observed that untraced reports are filed in most of the theft cases as the officials in lower rung of the ladder struggle with the technological aspect of putting theMAC ID (of laptop) on surveillance," the court said. The court said that a copy of the order should be sent to theDCP (north), Joint Commissioner of Police (north range) and the SHO concerned for necessary order or compliance. The court's order came in a case of theft of a bag containing MAC book, camera, kindle tablet, speaker and a hard disk from a bus which the complainant boarded from ISBT,Kashmere Gate here. During investigation, the IO tried to put the MAC ID of laptop on surveillance and wrote e-mails to various telecom service providers but none of them provided any details saying no data was available with them. The cops, however, did not make any inquiry from the Internet service provider.