In the light of rising incidents of crime against women and children, a database of sexual offenders in the State will be created. This will be the first such initiative in the country while it is a common feature in foreign countries. A senior police official said discussions had started on the modalities of creating such a database. The police computer wing is likely to coordinate the efforts.
At present, every police station has two lists: one is that of history-sheeters, who have criminal past and have been involved in serious offences, and the other is that of modus operandi (MO) card holders, who have been involved in petty crimes.
Now, data of persons involved in sexual offences will be maintained so that it can be added to the sexual offenders’ database henceforth.
ADVERTISEMENT
How will the database help?
Officials said that in most cases registered under Section 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman), offenders procure bail easily. “In the light of growing concerns about safety of women and child, the behaviour of persons with history of violating the privacy and modesty of a woman needs to be monitored. This is not possible at present because of the lack of a separate database to keep track of such offenders,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Hemanth Nimbalkar. Whenever a person knows that he is being monitored for a particular offence, it acts as a deterrent. Such a database would help the police and other stakeholders immensely as it will make the process of background verification easy.
Police are also considering publishing such lists online to enable employers to verify the applicants’ backgrounds.
ADVERTISEMENT