The police got a new application to scan the fingerprints of suspects on the streets

Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the 26th All India Conference on Fingerprints 2026 at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Auditorium in New Delhi on June 19, 2026. Director of the National Crime Records Bureau Alok Ranjan and Director of the Intelligence Bureau of India Tapan Deka were also present. | Photo credit: ANI

Police and investigative agencies across the country will soon be equipped with portable fingerprint scanners linked to a national database of 1.3 million criminal suspects and convicts, allowing them to stop individuals anywhere, even on the streets, collect fingerprints and instantly check any outstanding criminal records on their smartphones.

Abhigyan, an app developed by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to implement the procedure, was launched by Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday (June 19, 2026).

Union Home Minister Amit Shah launches the Abhigyan app during the 26th All India Fingerprint Conference 2026 at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Auditorium in New Delhi on June 19, 2026. | Photo credit: ANI

The application is linked to the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS), which stores fingerprint scans of accused, convicted and incarcerated persons on a centralized platform. A demo application showed that prints could be matched to the NAFIS database in 35 seconds.

Routine checks

“During routine street checks of vehicles, biometric scans can be performed on any suspicious individual to identify those wanted in connection with crimes. Field officers can obtain a suspect’s criminal history within seconds. This will provide protection to officers as they will be alerted to the presence of a hardened criminal,” the demonstration said.

An NCRB official told The Hindu that the Criminal Procedure Identification Act, 2022 provides the legal basis for such checks. However, section 3 of the Act appears to limit the mandatory recording of measurements, including fingerprints, to persons who have been convicted or arrested and to persons who have been ordered to provide protection for good behavior or keeping the peace under the Criminal Code 1973. The Act does not mention the possibility of random testing of persons without any evidence linking them to an offence.

At present, the facility to check fingerprints against the NAFIS database is only available through 1,556 workstations located in police stations and district headquarters across the country. The current process involves bringing an individual to a workstation to compare their fingerprints to a database.

Real-time identification

Mr Shah said the app allows field officers to access a vast repository of criminal records directly on their smartphones. “Secured by two-step authentication, it enables real-time fingerprint identification within seconds, strengthening policing at the ground level. Equipped with features such as rapid identification, portability and access to millions of records, ‘Abhigyan’ is a high-powered tool,” the minister said.

The NAFIS database contains records of approximately 9.91 million narcotics offenders, 3.65 million human trafficking cases and extensive prison databases, Mr. Shah said. NAFIS should not be used only to identify offenders, he said, adding that its effectiveness depends on the continuous enrichment of the database by uploading fingerprints collected from each crime scene. He noted that a criminal’s DNA sample, if properly preserved, can also be used in the investigation of other crimes, adding that states are primarily responsible for this.

Focus on the prosecution

He stated that the emphasis should continue to be placed not only on apprehending the perpetrators, but also on ensuring that the crimes are proven in a time-bound manner. The focus should not be limited to only arresting criminals, but time-bound justice, he added.

The Home Secretary said the training needed to be more practical. Training modules should include the art of designing concise record sheets along with the precise processes of gathering, preserving and recording scientific evidence. Such modules should be developed by experienced prosecutors. If 250 pieces of evidence are still presented to the courts, even after matching fingerprints, phone tower data, facial recognition, iris scans and DNA, then the technology serves no real purpose, Mr Shah noted.

Published – 19 Jun 2026 22:04 IST