NIDAAN (The National Integrated Database on Arrested Narco-offenders)

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

India’s first portal on arrested narco offenders. It is part of the narcotics coordination mechanism (NCORD) portal that was launched by Union Home Minister.

• A first-of-its kind database of arrested narcotics offenders has been made operational for use by various central and State prosecution agencies tasked to enforce anti-drugs laws in the country.
• The portal NIDAAN or the National Integrated Database on Arrested Narco-offenders — has been developed by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
• It is part of the narcotics coordination mechanism (NCORD) portal that was launched by Union Home Minister in Chandigarh during the national conference on ‘Drug trafficking and national security’.
• The NIDAAN platform sources its data from the ICJS (inter-operable criminal justice system) and the e-Prisons (a cloud-based application) repository and it is planned to integrate it in the future with the crime and criminal tracking network system or CCTNS.
• The ICJS, an initiative of the Supreme Court e-committee, was created to enable seamless transfer of data and information among different pillars of the criminal justice system, like courts, police, jails and forensic science laboratories, from one platform.
• “NIDAAN is a one-stop solution for all narcotics offenders’ related data and will help investigative agencies as an effective tool to connect the dots while probing narcotics cases.
• The idea to create such a portal was to enhance the capability of all the law enforcement agencies working against drug crimes.
• NIDAAN hosts data about those accused who have been arrested and jailed for drugs offences and those who are “directly or indirectly involved in the produce, manufacture, possession, selling, purchase, transport, warehousing, usage, consumption, inter-state import and export, import into India, export from India or transhipment of any narcotics or psychotropic substance.
• The blueprint prepared for the operation and usage of the portal, any agency can search for the crime history, personal details, fingerprints, court cases and appeals made etc. with regard to a drug offender from any part of the country.
• A distinct feature called ‘criminal network’ on the portal can also be accessed by agencies, as part of which specific links of an accused to other crimes, linked police FIRs and those who visited them in jail can also be accessed.