Prosecution ratio in police cases pitiful, need to shun third degree and embrace forensics: Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said prosecution ratio in criminal cases in the country is "very pitiful" and age-old police techniques such as giving a suspect the third degree and phone tapping will not yield the desired results in curbing crimes or getting convictions.

Addressing the top brass of police organisations during the 49th Raising Day event of the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) here, the home minister said usage of forensic evidence is the need of the hour for police investigators to clinch convictions against criminals.

Shah said he has asked BPRD to prepare a plan to create "modus operandi bureaus" at the national and state levels and that the government is mulling making forensic evidence essential in all criminal cases where the quantum of punishment is seven years or more.

"The prosecution ratio is very pitiful in the true sense. It cannot go like this in these times. This needs to be corrected and this can only be corrected when a probe is supported by forensic evidence."