What changed on the ground with the new criminal laws

The three new criminal laws namely Bhartiye Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bhartiye Nyay Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) replacing the old Indian Penal Code (IPC), Criminal Procedure Code (CRPC), and Indian Evidence act respectively came into force on 1st of July 2024. 

One of the major advantages of the new BNS is that approaching police has become a lot easier. From now on, people of Delhi can report a crime outside the city through zero FIR.  So how the Zero FIR system works is 

• A complaint will reach the police station 

• SHO will put it in zero fir register and fir no is prefixed with 0

• Officer forwards it to the concerned police station as per the jurisdiction. 

The Indian police for long has been criticised for its delay in regular procedures. But now this has been changed as deadlines have been prescribed for the police on regular procedures so that the police are accountable and people are not left to wait indefinitely. 

Delhi police is considering the rollout of tablets to Investigating officers to fulfil the requirements laid out in BNS. The major reason that the use of tablets is in question is that it will allow them to make videos of the crime scene and take pictures with GPS and time tagging. There is emphasis on the development of a crime networking app for the police to record and upload such images and videos. 

This new app heavily relies on a unique hash value attached to every element which will reduce tampering of evidence and will ensure that the correct evidence reaches the court. The sanctity of the digital evidence is the top priority of the police now, which is why the idea is being rolled out that the app may use cloud based storage systems besides the regular system.