GPS tracker to enhance monitoring, effective compliance of bail stipulations: DGP

Jammu, Nov 6: Director General of Police (DGP) Rashmi Ranjan Swain has stated that the GPS tracker will enable law enforcement set-up to effectively monitor the movement of criminals or terrorists, mainly repeat-offenders, out on bail and ensure strict compliance of court’s (bail) stipulations.

While speaking to a national news agency, DGP was explaining the rationale behind the introduction of Global Positioning System (GPS) tracker (anklets) in J&K and its significance for the law enforcement agencies.
“It has legal context as well as operational context. Both are inter-related. As far as operational context is concerned, it is aimed at surveillance of those who repeatedly commit offence, be it terrorism; narcotics smuggling or any other kind of heinous offence, when they are out on bail,” he said.

Explaining the rationale, DGP stated, “Bail is granted on a condition that the person (offender), once out (on bail) will not repeat or commit any offence again; will not tamper or destroy the evidence; threaten or influence witnesses and will not hatch any conspiracy or indulge in related activity. Law grants bail, reposing its trust that the person will not violate any of these conditions.”

“See, bail, in no way, suggests that the case has ended. So during that interim (bail) period, for those, who take undue advantage or misuse this legal instrument (bail), which is aimed at facilitating and providing relief to genuine persons; those notorious repeat offenders or ‘career- criminals’, who earn their livelihood out of the proceeds of crimes and for whom crime is an occupation; or those who are ideologically committed like a terrorist, at present there is no effective deterrence or mechanism in place which can prevent them from repeating an offence,” he shared the grey area for law enforcement agencies.

He pointed out, “In the present scenario, surveillance on mobility, (physical mobility of offenders) and connectivity, which is also encrypted and highly secretive through technical means, gets fully defeated. In such a scenario, law enforcement set up finds itself in a very difficult situation as this overall system or arrangement (encrypted and secretive connectivity laced with technical means) goes in favour of the criminal.”
He revealed that keeping these points in view, they (law enforcement set-up) had taken an initiative days ago in a high-level security meeting and for which the Government of India too had accorded its approval in principle.

On this account, senior officers of police, CID, including IG, DIG and specially SSP heading SIA in Jammu province examined its (GPS tracker's) technical aspects as to how it would work, DGP Swain mentioned.

“Then even in the court, they (officers) apprised it (court) that to ensure that its own conditions stipulated for granting bail don’t get violated and the surveillance or monitoring of it (that the conditions are not violated) does not reduce to mere paper horses, a mechanism has been devised,

in the form of GPS tracker concept which will address these issues. This is widely used in the West,” he said.
“It is heartening to reveal that the first such tracker was installed on the person, who was caught red-handed, while carrying Rs 50 lakh in a cylinder for terrorist or separatist financing. So with the help of a tracker, we would be able to track their movement and strict enforcement of bail conditions in effective pursuance of court orders,” Swain said.