Haryana cops get cold feet over putting convict details on web

Concerned over the legal and ethical aspects over its initiative of uploading names and case details of those convicted on charges of heinous crimes against women, the Haryana Police have constituted a committee of three senior IPS officers to look into whether the database of convicts can be put online. The committee comprises Anil Dawara (Director General, Administration), S S Deswal (ADGP, Crime) and L R Dabas, Director SCRB.

The State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) is ready with a database of over 5,000 such offenders who were convicted by the lower courts on charges of committing heinous crimes against women, the database is yet to be uploaded on the police's website.

Sources disclosed that the Haryana police has decided not to take the lead in such a 'controversial initiative' which could land them in legal hassles unless the Ministry of Home Affairs gives its go ahead. Even the Delhi police, which had originally mooted the idea to upload such convicts' names and case details on the website, have not done it so far and the matter is pending with the Union Law Ministry.

SCRB Director L R Dabas, whose team compiled the database, said: "The committee will now decide how to proceed on this initiative. There were some reservations expressed by the DGP on certain points. All those points shall be discussed by the committee members, who meet next week."

"As far as legal issues are concerned, I don't think there should be any problem. As such world's prominent nations including the United States follow this practice of uploading sexual offenders' lists. It is nothing but a kind of social pressure exerted on such people who indulge in heinous crimes against women," Dabas told the Indian Express .

According to SCRB officials, the database comprises of names, addresses and case details of over 5,000 persons convicted on charges of rape, gangrape, dowry death, rape and murder and molestation of women in Haryana in the last 10 years.

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