Centre doesn't view crimes from the prism of caste, religion: Kishan Reddy

The Narendra Modi government does not believe in viewing crime from the "prism of caste, creed or region" as any crime is against humanity and peace, Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said on Tuesday.

Inaugurating the 21st All India Conference of Directors, Fingerprint Bureau 2020, he also said the government would never tolerate crimes against women and the downtrodden and take all measures in ensuring speedy and decisive justice for all victims.

His comments came against the backdrop of the gang-rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras. The CBI took over the case on Sunday on the request of the UP government and investigators on Tuesday visited the spot where the girl was sexually assaulted.

Reddy said law and order is a state subject but the Centre has an important role in monitoring and tracking crime, in modernisation of police forces, and in capacity building and in extending assistance to State governments in improving policing. In 2019-20, he said, the Centre had released Rs 780 crore for modernisation of police across the country.

Emphasizing on the importance of fingerprints, Reddy said that fingerprint is an essential tool because of its uniqueness, permanency, individuality and ease in acquisition.

The digitization of records and fingerprint data is an important step forward in documenting and tracking crimes and criminals. The fully computerised National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS) would soon become functional and benefit police forces, he said.

He also unveiled the e-Cyber Lab set up by NCRB with state of the art cyber forensic tools.