The Kochi Police are all set to introduce a mobile app, Yodhav, on which citizens can share information on drug run in the city while remaining anonymous.
“Smuggling of drugs has grown despite enhanced enforcement by the police and Excise. The biggest challenge in the fight against drugs is lack of intelligence as people are wary of sharing information for fear of backlash from unscrupulous elements engaged in drug trade, leaving enforcement agencies to collect intelligence on their own,” Vijay Sakhare, Inspector General and District Police Chief (Kochi City), said here on Wednesday.
The app offers a common platform for people to share information by remaining completely anonymous. In fact, the app is so designed that even the police who receive information cannot trace the identity of informants.
“The beauty of the app is that there is no need to download it from google play or AppStore. The back end of the app is integrated with WhatsApp and will run in the background. Users have to use WhatsApp in the normal manner for using the app. Information can be shared in the form of audio, video, image, or text just like sending any other WhatsApp message to a designated number. This will be a milestone in the fight against drug menace,” Mr. Sakhare said.
He discounted the possibility of miscreants sharing bogus or misleading information taking advantage of anonymity, saying that the information received would be verified through independent sources.
A 21-member team led by a Sub Inspector set up at the Commissionerate to deal exclusively with narcotic cases will handle information. This is in addition to a 93-member team at the police station-level for handling cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
Police hope that a seamless coordination between all these teams will bringing in a greater degree of effectiveness and deeper level investigation helping to destroy the entire drug network and make the city free of the menace.
