Delhi police ask arms dealers to digitise their records

Officials said that the licensing unit of the Delhi Police have already provided several rounds of technological demonstrations in this connection to all the arms dealers in the national capital

NEW DELHI: To bring transparency in the system and to facilitate quick access to records, the Delhi police have asked all the 23 arms and ammunition dealers in Delhi to digitise their records regarding sale, purchase, stock and other transactions of arms and ammunition.

Om Prakash Mishra, the joint commissioner (licensing), said illegal operations by arms dealers and licencees can be unearthed through digital audits now. (Picture for representation only)

Officials said that the licensing unit of the Delhi Police have already provided several rounds of technological demonstrations in this connection to all the arms dealers in the national capital.

Om Prakash Mishra, the joint commissioner (licensing), said illegal operations by arms dealers and licencees can be unearthed through digital audits now.

“Delhi police have become the first police body in India to follow digitisation of arms licensing. It is a two-way technological audit to verify the authenticity of licensees and their weapons. By the end of this year, all these dealers will have to follow the online process during the sale of arms and ammunition,” he said.

He further said that the software has already been developed and tested, and can be verified by the arms dealers and the registered beat police in a single click.

“Scanning a QR code of the 18-digit Unique Identification Number of the license on the Shastra mobile application will show complete details of the license holder, i.e. name, photo, address, type of weapon and allotted quota of cartridges. Delhi has become the first state to introduce smart card in place of the traditional paper license booklet. The process of conversion of the old license booklet into smart cards is already in its completion stage,” he said.

Mishra also said that other states in India have also expressed their desire to follow the Delhi model of digitisation of arms licenses. “While the team from Gujarat has already visited the national capital to know its specialties, another team from Madhya Pradesh is expected to come by this week,” he said.

Arms dealers too supported the initiative, noting that it will cut down on paperwork.

“Earlier, we had to note down the small digits on weapons and their bullets on paper. Though we used to take the help of magnifying glass to note the serial numbers, it was never an error-free process. Now, we only need to scan the weapons and bullets and the computer does the rest. Since all the records of sale automatically go to the main server of the licensing unit within seconds, now we don’t have to worry about keeping our books ready for auditing,” said an arms dealer from Central Delhi, asking not to be named.

Another dealer from south Delhi said, “Now, data will not be tampered and arms dealers will not be questioned about illegal sale of weapons and bullets.”