Ahmedabad: The city crime branch received a Special Commendation Award from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) at a UIDAI-Aadhaar conclave held in Kolkata, West Bengal, recently. The award recognises the crime branch as the first law enforcement agency (LEA) to function as an offline verification seeking entity (OVSE) for consent-based Aadhaar verification.
Ahmedabad JCP crime Sharad Singhal receiving the award from UIDAI
The initiative includes two portals developed by the crime branch: Pathik (Program for Analysis of Traveller and Hotel Informatics) for hotel guest verification; and Pratiraksha for labour and employee verification. UIDAI recognised the platforms for technology-driven, consent-based and privacy-focused identity verification. Joint commissioner of police, crime branch, Sharad Singhal received the award for the initiatives.Since its inception in 2017, Pathik has evolved from a local initiative into a statewide success, with over 9,000 hotels currently onboarded across Gujarat. The system has already demonstrated profound field impact, having assisted in tracing more than 50 missing persons and identifying illegal immigrants.
