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| Friday, 17 September 2004 |
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by Sandasen Marasinghe Colombo High Court Judge Eric Basnayake yesterday (16) expressed surprise to learn that the Fingerprints Department, one of the major institutions involved in crime detection, is functioning manually without modern technology. The Court also observed that the FPO issues more than 100,000 reports a year yet each fingerprint should be tallied with more than 400,000 fingerprints of Island Reconvicted Criminals (IRCs) manually. The Court observed this situation when the Registrar of the Finger Prints Office (FPO), Wijekoon Mudiyanselage Abeyratne was summoned before the Court in connection with a report sent by the FPO which stated that an accused of a case was free from previous fingerprinting instances although he had 14 previous convictions and is being sentenced until 2048. The Registrar of the Fingerprints Office who admitted that their report produced before the Court was erroneous and apologised if the report caused any disturbance to the Court in jurisdiction. The Registrar also produced the report of previous convictions of the accused Liyana Arachchige Don Sunil Jayasinghe. He is indicted on taking Rs. 15,000 from each K. C. Chaminda, H. H. Sarath and Ranjith Priyankara on March 10 at Maharagama promising them jobs. The Registrar stated that the Department started in 1908 and since then the data are recorded in a scientific method. Although the employees are well-trained they work manually dealing with subtle differences of fingerprints. Although the entire Department consists of 200 employees this section is engaged with about 45 employees. They issue more than 100,000 reports a year. Hence there is a possibility of mistakes occurring according to the temperament, health and environmental situation of a person who deals with extremely subtle features. He further noted that the employees of the FPO have to tally the fingerprints of a criminal with more than 400,000 fingerprints, which a single employee cannot perform even in a lifetime. But with the help of computers it could be performed within 30 minutes even with a million fingerprints. The Registrar with regard to this incident stated that although the employee produced an erroneous report before the Court, earlier the same employee in an other case filed against the very accused had produced a perfect report which makes clear that he had not done the mistake deliberately. The Judge who expressed his surprise, at this stage said that the Judges and the public were of the opinion that the Fingerprints Department was furnished with modern equipment and technology in an era when computers are abundant everywhere in the country. The Judge also observed that people were killed in broad daylight and at such an hour a department like Fingerprints should be given priority. Deficiencies in such a department is really favourable to the criminals, he added. The Judge inquired whether there were any criminals who could not be found, even the fingerprints were collected from the crime scenes, the Registrar stated that there were more than 40,000 such unidentified finger prints within the last decade and it was impossible to tally all these 40,000 with the collection of 400,000 fingerprints unless they were provided with computer technology. At least if nearly 20,000 of these criminals can be brought before the Court the crime wave can be drastically cut, the Registrar further said. High Court Judge Eric Basnayake:-"Does it mean more than 40,000 criminals are absconding?" Registrar:-"provided that a single criminal is engaged in several crimes "no" or else nearly "yes"." The Judge who expressed hope that the Fingerprints Department would be supplied with these privileges in the near future, reserved the judgement for today. State Counsel Shanil Kularatne appeared for the Attorney General. |
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