Your stolen vehicles may be a click away

Rahul Gupta

NEW DELHI: Want to purchase a vehicle, but not sure if you are dealing with a ‘hot’ car (involved in a crime)? Eager to know if your stolen vehicle has been recovered in any part of the country. Then here’s the solution. Pay Rs 10 at National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) counter and you could get all information regarding that particular vehicle.

NCRB, which has a national data bank of stolen and recovered vehicles, has recently opened a stolen/recovered vehicle Information Center. NCRB has developed software, named ‘Property Co-ordination software’. The software helps to gather information about all the stolen vehicles in the country and by a click of the mouse, one can get all the necessary information about any stolen or recovered vehicle.

How the network works



The system is based on Intel Architecture. "We chose Intel for its reliability, scalability, speed, uniformity of operating system, software, and its trained staff," said NCRB director Harish Kumar. The system will be connected to police headquarters and secondary offices, totaling 13,362 police stations and 1,128 jails. Currently, the network has over 740 Intel Pentium III and Pentium Xeon processor-based servers.

The online component of the new system will enable the NCRB to make non-classified material available to the public on the Internet. Confidential information will be kept within the Police Network (POLNET). The State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) receives all the data of stolen/recovered vehicles from District Crime Records Bureau (DCRB) and sends it to the National Crime Records bureau in New Delhi. The DCRB collects data from all the concerned police stations on a day-to-day basis.

"Despite the size of the project, the implementation has been easy," says Harish Kumar. "The servers are provided with Pentium III and Pentium III Xeon processors. We have also installed 950 desktops running Intel Celeron processors, which are extremely reliable. The software is adapted to run on a Microsoft platform."

NCRB has the Crime Criminal Information System (CCIS) keeps a database of crimes, criminals and stolen property. The system is networked nationally between state capitals, with state police forces connected to their headquarters through regional networks.

The process is simple, with the owner of the lost/stolen vehicle simply having to fill in details regarding the registration, chasis and engine number. The report will be obtained immediately. The applicant can also find out from the counter if the stolen vehicle has been recovered in any part of the country.

Similarly, a buyer can also ascertain before purchase of an old second hand vehicle if it has been involved in any crime. This facility can be availed by outstation applicants by sending a postal order of Rs 10 in favor of the NCRB director in New Delhi.