The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill is anti-people and anti-federal and undermines the fundamental right to privacy, DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran said in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
The Bill, passed by the Lok Sabha, seeks to provide legal sanction to the police and prison authorities to collect, store and analyse physical and biological samples of convicts as well as persons accused of crimes.
Participating in the debate, Mr. Maran expressed his apprehension that the provisions of the Bill could be used to target minorities and wondered if the government wanted to create a surveillance state.
The DMK member also accused the Narendra Modi government of cherry-picking laws and amending them to “terrorise” the people. He said that the Bill gives unbridled powers to police officers and people will have to live under their mercy.
Mr. Maran also questioned the need to store data for 75 years and, that too, in the absence of a Data Protection Bill.
“Your government is known for targeting the minorities,” he told Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was also present in the Lok Sabha.
Referring to a recent incident of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s house being vandalised, allegedly by BJP workers in the presence of Lok Sabha member Tejasvi Surya, Mr. Maran asked why the Delhi Police could not identify the people involved when their photographs were in public domain.
He questioned why Mr. Shah, while moving the Bill, did not talk about increasing efficiency of the police force and mentioned the slow pace of investigation in the Delhi riots of 2020.
Mr. Maran also referred to the Prisons Statistics of India Report of 2020 and said that 4,88,513 people are in jails against a sanctioned capacity of 4,14,033 inmates.
“Only 1,12,589 of the inmates are convicted while 3,71,848 inmates are undertrials,” he said, adding that many of them were in jails because of committing petty offences.
