Explained: How NAFIS, a pan-India fingerprint database, will help nab criminals

New Delhi, Aug 25: India has inaugurated a fingerprint identification system which will work as the database for the crime and criminal related fingerprints across the country and will help the agencies to upload and trace the fingerprints on real-time basis.

Inaugurated by Union Home Minister Amit Shah last week, the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS) has been developed by NCRB to help in quick and easy disposal of cases with the help of the fingerprint database. Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh became the first state in the country to use NAFIS to identify a deceased person in April this year.

What is NAFIS?

NAFIS is the national database of fingerprints from all states and union territories and is a central information repository to identify criminals using this fingerprint and palm print data. It can serve as a game-changer for fingerprint experts and law enforcing agencies while they investigate crimes and criminals. The national-level NAFIS solution would be implemented and managed by the Central Fingerprint Bureau (CFPB) at NCRB.

How does it help criminal investigations?

In simplest terms, NAFIS is like giving a unique identity card for criminals.

Fingerprint of every criminal registered in the system is given a unique fingerprint reference number which is a 10-digit National Fingerprint Number (NFN) and is valid for the person's lifetime. SO simply put, every time an FIR is registered against a person in any state, it would be linked to his/her unique NFN. The first two digits of the ID will be the state code, followed by a sequence number. So with the help of NAFIS, crimes committed in one state by a criminal can be tracked in any part of the country.
The history of Fingerprint science in India

While NAFIS is a new technology, India is not new to fingerprinting science in criminal investigations.

Sir William James Herschel, a British ICS officer in India, used fingerprints for identification on contracts and was one of the first to advocate for the use of fingerprinting in criminal suspect identification. He used thumbprints on papers as a security measure to prevent signature repudiation.

He was the first person to use Hand Prints/ Finger Prints officially and published an account of his work entitled 'The Origin of Fingerprinting'.

India, First Country to Establish Finger Print Bureau

Later, Dr Henry Faulds discovered that there are no two fingerprints are alike while giving the idea of tracing a criminal from the latent prints found at the scene of crime. Based on the idea of Herschel and Faulds, Sir Francis Galton, the renowned English Scientist established scientifically the basic principles of uniqueness and permanency in Finger Prints. It was then that Sir Edward Richard Henry, the Inspector General of Police, Lower Bengal with the able assistance of two Indian officers namely, Khan Bahadur Azizul Haque and Rai Bahadur Hemchandra Bose, developed a system of classification of fingerprints, thereby discarding the anthropometric system of identification.

The first ever Finger Print Bureau in the world was established at Writer's Building at Calcutta (now Kolkata) in the year 1897.

The Central Finger Print Bureau better known by acronym, CFPB came into being in 1955 in Calcutta (now Kolkata) under the administrative control of the Intelligence Bureau. In 1973 the administrative control was transferred to CBI and it was in July, 1986 that the CFPB was finally placed under the administrative control of the newly formed National Crime Records Bureau.

What are the scheduled Offences to Take Finger Impressions.

As per the NCRB. the finger impression of the following persons will be recorded at the Central Finger Print Bureau:

1) All persons convicted of offences under chapter XII to XVII IPC which are punishable with
rigorous imprisonment for a term of one year or more.

2) All persons convicted of any offence under Chapter VI IPC or of sabotage and subversive
activities against State.

3) All persons convicted of offences under section 170, 302, and 304 (murder for gain), 328, 338,
465 to 477A, 489A to 489D IPC.

4) All persons convicted under the Arms, Opium and State Excise acts who are suspected to be
smugglers in Arms, Opium by dangerous drugs as defined in the Dangerous Drugs Act
(Act II of 1930) or entailing enhanced punishment on reconviction.

5) All persons convicted of smuggling gold, currency and valuable articles under Foreign
exchange Regulation Act VII of 1947.

6) All persons ordered to execute bonds under sections 109 and 110 CrPC (for offence against
property only).

7) All traffickers in women and children who are convicted under section 363 to 373 IPC.

8) All persons convicted under section 5 of Act LXXIV of 1950 for unlawful possession of
telegraph wires.

9) All persons convicted under section 3 of Ordnance XIX of 1944 for unlawful possessions of Railway Stores.

10) All professional criminals and persons of dangerous character externed from any area under any state Act.

11) All foreigners externed under Foreigners Act XXXI of 1946.

12) All approvers in gang dacoity and criminal conspiracy cases.

13) All persons suspected of being professional itinerant criminals and persons of notoriously criminal reputation who habitually absent themselves from their homes and are believed to
travel to other states for the purpose of committing crime and who have been arrested by police and whose finger prints have been taken, even if they are acquitted provided that in case of acquittal permission for record for finger prints is obtained from the court under section 7 of Act XXXIII of 1920.

14) All persons convicted for attempt or abetment (sec 511 or 109/114 IPC) and criminal conspiracy (sec 120B IPC) for offences mentioned in this schedule.

15) All Indian nationals convicted outside India of any offence for which finger prints have been received at the State Bureau from those countries.

16) All International criminals and absconders whose finger prints are sent to the State Bureau from countries outside India.

17) All persons convicted under explosive Substances Act (Act VI of 1908).

18) All persons convicted under the official Secrets Act (Act XIX of 1923).

19) All persons convicted under sec 101, 126 and 128 of the Indian Railways Act (Act IX of 1890).

20) Any other person whose finger prints are ordered to be maintained by the Govt. of India from time to time, subject to the provisions of the Identification of prisoners Act (act
XXXIII of 1920).

Note: The taking of fingerprints of persons who are local men and convicted of offences of trivial nature will be subject to the discretion of the Superintendent of Police of the district concerned.