The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a Standard of Procedure for audio and video recording of crime scenes under the new criminal procedure law i.e. Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) as suggestive guidelines.

The SOP has been prepared by elaborate brainstorming with field practitioners to fulfill their immediate felt need for a handholding document. It is a guideline for the functional and operational part of crime scene photography and videography to ensure the admissibility of the same in a court of law.

The technical aspects including photographs taken by forensic experts, contents, and analysis are only basic and not dealt with in great detail.

It has been clarified that the SOP is a suggested guidelines which is being shared for use of police and enforcement units in states and central organizations, but the states and central police organisations can build upon this basic structure depending upon their peculiar needs and needs of special acts hinging on these procedural laws.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SOP:

The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) consist of two parts, first pertaining to general procedures of Videography in Police Procedures: and the second relating to Standing Operating Procedure for Videography in investigative compliance & seizure of electronic and digital devices found as part of investigation.

1. The Police must have access to simple technology along with appropriate training to inspire confidence in them to preserve and record the scene of crime authentically and faithfully.
2. The state units & central police organisations will strengthen the overall ecosystem of evidence collection via audio-video recording by adhering to broad principles outlined.
3. The investigating officer to adopt an orderly process to access the crime scene so that any material evidence is not left out.
4. The search will be conducted in the presence of independent witnesses who may or may not be government officials. In case no witnesses are available Police officials can also be cited as witnesses during the search. These witnesses also referred as Panch Witness should append their signatures on the seizure memo.
5. Seizure memos with respect to such articles recovered at the instance of the accused are admissible evidence and, thus, to be prepared carefully.
6. Only departmentally approved and issued digital cameras/ Audio video recorder will be used for official criminal investigation purposes.
7. The whole episode of recording must be without any break. Also, all team members of first responder team or forensic team are required to maintain silence during videography and avoid any chatter or loose talk which could be then used by defense to counter the investigative sanctity. Same is also expected of witnesses present there.
8. It will be mandatory for the officer in charge of the police station to supply Videography recording of the scene of crime, Recording of Search and Seizure, Information cognizable cases-FIR, Orders for custody and disposal of property.
9. Each audio-video recording as part of procedural compliance and investigative compliance and each seizure of relevant digital evidence requires certification, doubly by the
handler (or manager) and by an expert.
10. The states will have to cater to needs of police stations for additional burden of audio-video recording as mandated in New Criminal Laws such as dedicated desktop for Evidence Specialist/ data manager/ /Information assistant, dedicated vehicle for digital forensic experts/ first responders to reach scene of crime, dedicated room with work stations for forensic teams and first responders, storage facility at data centers for parallel storage.
11. An Android/ iOS/MS-based application' supported by a web application has been developed by many central/state units previously and now with the advent of New Criminal Laws, NCRB through the ‘e-Sakshya’ is adding cloud-based audio/video recording application to be dovetailed in CCTNS-2.0.
12. States will be required to integrate with the eSakshya Platform.

Read SOP in detail @LatestLaws.com:

Share this Document :

Picture Source :