Minister says more than 1,900 Delhi rioters identified by facial biometrics

Law enforcement in India has used biometric facial recognition to identify more than 1,900 people who were involved in setting fires and destroying infrastructure during recent riots in Delhi according to comments by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to the Rajya Sabha reported by ANI.

Facial images from driver’s licenses and voter ID cards were used, rather than data from the Aadhaar database, as has been reported by some media, according to Shah. He also noted that the government has raised the use of facial recognition to identify rioters in both Houses of the legislature on March 11 and 12 in the interest of transparency.

“Over 700 FIRs (first information reports) have been registered so far. The culprits, they may be of any religion, caste or party, they will not be spared,” Shah told the upper house.

Meanwhile, the country is planning to launch the largest facial recognition system in the world for police use among those operated by government.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital ID cards  |  driver's license  |  facial recognition  |  India  |  police