Key evidence in the 2013 Malleswaram bomb blast case was the CCTV footage of a man parking the explosive-laden bike in front of an apartment complex.
Though the footage did not serve the purpose of cracking the terror module itself, it was used as evidence to charge sheet the arrested later.
However, things could have been vastly different. The footage could have been a potent tool of investigation, if the city police had image enhancement and face recognition technology.
This lacuna may soon be overcome. The NEC India Private Ltd., a subsidiary of NEC Asia Pacific, in a MOU with KEONICS, will upgrade cyber labs in the State. They are set to be equipped with facial recognition solutions and video analysis solutions for intelligence surveillance, among others.
These technologies could have helped match the photograph of the bomber, with the thousands of photographs of known offenders in the database of various police departments. The bomber in this case, Panna Ismail, having had a criminal past, would have been in the police dragnet within minutes after a search with the Tamil Nadu police database.
A senior police official said with the implementation of digitised Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems across the country, face recognition software was the essential key to unlock the databases of various known offenders across the country.
“Armed with CCTV surveillance that is slowly turning a norm in urban areas and a face recognition programme, criminals who used to drop out of police radars taking advantage of non co-ordinated police databases, will have a hard time now,” he said.
Cyber labs in Mangaluru and Madivala in Bengaluru will get these advanced technologies. The programme will also provide the State police access to latest technologies being used by agencies like the Interpol. Japan’s NEC Corporation has also collaborated with Interpol for their Digital Crime Centre, Singapore.
“The total expenditure of the project will be shared equally by the NEC Japan and KEONICS,” KIONICS chairman U.B. Venkatesh said adding that the programme will also help create safer smart cities.
