Aadhaar officials say no to demand for biometrics in Delhi murder probe

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the federal agency behind the Aadhaar biometric identification number scheme, told the Delhi High Court that its fingerprint database could not be used in a murder and robbery investigation, citing technical and legal limitations.

A jeweler in New Delhi’s Adarsh ​​Nagar district was robbed and killed in 2018. Although fingerprints were collected, they produced no matches in the Delhi Police’s biometric database. Photographs of the suspected killer captured on CCTV also appeared dry in a facial recognition database.

This is what led the investigators to the UIDAI.

But like Republic World reports, UIDAI officials told the High Court that they were not allowed to open their biometric database to the police.

They say they are prevented by the Aadhaar law, which limits the biometric identification system to simply creating unique identity numbers for individuals. Forensic investigations are prohibited.

Officials also state that “no Aadhaar data may be shared by any person or entity without the resident’s consent” for privacy reasons.

the Hindustan time reports that there is legal precedent to support investigators pushing back.

The Supreme Court overturned the decision of the Bombay High Court, preventing the use of Aadhaar’s biometric data for a forensic investigation.

Then there is the fact that the UIDAI is unable to perform one-to-many fingerprint comparisons, according to the Hindustan Times.

Article topics

adhar | biometric identification | biometrics | criminal identification | data protection | India | confidentiality | UIDAI