Union Minister of State for Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh on Monday released the Central Bureau of Investigation's revised Crime Manual, which will be instrumental in guiding the agency on legal matters and tools for an efficient probe.
The exercise of updating the manual in accordance with the current requirements took almost 18 months, under CBI chief Rishi Kumar Shukla. It was last revised in 2005.
“The process involved extensive consultation with senior, serving and retired, agency officials and law officers and special contribution by Additional Director Praveen Sinha,” said an agency official.
The new manual provides information about the laws, procedures and their interpretations in a format to assist the investigating officers in their day-to-day work. Apart from details on Interpol notices and its functioning, the revised manual has a separate chapter dedicated to investigations in foreign jurisdictions.
It has also discussed the team approach of investigation to be adopted in larger and complex cases. The manual also explains an elaborate preventive vigilance functioning of the CBI, which can be used by the field teams. Under the revised guideline, the Head of a Branch is required to complete the necessary process in six months and the Head of the Zone has to sum it up by nine months in usual cases.
The standard operating procedures pertaining to cybercrime cases have been comprehensively revised to enhance the speed and quality of investigation, in consonance with the global best practices.
Considering the strides in the information-communication technology, the updated procedures in collection and analysis of digital evidence and for the handling of complex cybercrime cases have also been incorporated in the manual.
