Tracking app helps court convict externed man

Pune, July 03: A local court here sentenced an externed criminal to four months imprisonment after the Pune police used their customised tracking app to find that he had violated the conditions of his externment.

According to the Pune police, this is the first-ever conviction made based on the findings of ExTra app (Externees Monitoring and Tracking System), which is a customised and modified version of a home quarantine monitoring mechanism.

Judicial magistrate M A Shaikh sentenced Shankar Babu Kailash Pandhekar to four months imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 500 on Thursday, said Bachchan Singh, deputy commissioner (crime) of Pune police.

"A history-sheeter, Pandhekar was externed by the Pune police. However, using ExTra app, we found that he had violated the conditions of his externment by entering the Pune police's jurisdiction," the official said.

An offence was registered against him at Bibvewadi police station on June 30, a chargesheet was filed within two days, Singh said.

In the last couple of months, the police developed ExTra, which is a customised and modified version of a home quarantine monitoring mechanism, which is used to track externed criminals.

ExTra is a facial recognition and geographical location-based tracking system operationalised on an experimental basis, it was stated.