India’s New Delhi deploys blockchain to streamline criminal investigation process

City officials in India’s capital New Delhi have announced the use of blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT) in criminal investigations, which experts are calling a groundbreaking move.

New Delhi’s government deployed blockchain in its Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to ensure that evidence obtained from crime scenes is stored using distributed ledgers to prevent tampering, the Times of India reported. Officials cite the inherent transparency of DLT as a key reason for turning operations to the technology. They noted that the benefits of immutability would promote citizens’ confidence in New Delhi’s law enforcement agencies.

The use of DLT in New Delhi’s crime investigation will be implemented in four stages, beginning with collection of samples and ending with dispatch. One official noted that each step of the process is fragmented and made tamper-proof to prevent violations of official protocol.

“To make a change at any stage, one cannot change the existing record and a new block has to be created and a new QR code will be generated. If there is any attempt to tamper with the record, immediate alerts go to all authorized persons, an FSL official said.

“The timestamps and encrypted data in the blockchain will ensure that each block is sequentially added to a chain,” said another FSL official.

New Delhi’s Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar hailed the move, saying it would improve the productivity of crime investigators in the city while ensuring a high level of objectivity in cases. Investigators at FSL receive around 1,500 crime samples each month, a number that investigators have had to contend with using traditional methods.

The DLT offering will be extended to other states interested in taking the leap, but officials say they need to upgrade the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System (CCTNS). In the coming months, there is speculation that the technology could be used to store certificate data from afforestation records.

India marches forward with DLT adoption

India has expressed a strong desire to be a world leader in DLT adoption in the coming years. The same sentiment has been expressed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman when she revealed that the country expects a 46% adoption rate for DLT adoption.

The country’s leading think tank NITI Aayog recently initiated a collaboration with 5ire and Network Capital to establish a DLT module for interested citizens. The partnership is designed to “deepen the talent pool” for DLT-based firms in India, but despite the moves, service providers are still groaning under the weight of a strict tax policy.

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