Patna, Dec. 23: The state police will soon be equipped with the voice logger facility to keep a close watch on the activities of Maoists and notorious criminals.

The voice logger system provides the facility to record a conversation on 16 cellphones simultaneously and also to analyse the recorded version. An ultramodern control room is being set up at the state police headquarters for the purpose.

The new system will help the police keep a tab on the activities of the Maoists as well as dreaded gangsters of the state involved in unlawful activities. The computer-operated system would be installed at the office of all the superintendents of police (SPs) and connected through Internet. It will function round-the-clock.

Earlier, the SPs often complained of problem in keeping surveillance on the activities of the rebels and the gangsters, as they had to maintain separate cellphones to record their conversations. “With the introduction of the new system, the conversation can be recorded on 16 mobile phones simultaneously,” said director-general of police Abhayanand.

He said the voice logger would help the police not only in collecting information about people involved in unlawful activities but also in keeping record of their conversations, which may be used as evidence alter. The system also provides the facility to analyse the data, he added.

The system installed in the districts would be monitored from a modern control room set up at the state police headquarters. IPS officer M. Sunil Naik, who had earlier worked as a junior scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), has been appointed the nodal officer of the project.

The officers with science background would be imparted training by the experts of the Isro, who would be later assigned to run the system. The officers posted in districts would be imparted training in batches. The first batch is scheduled to leave for training in the last week of December.

The decision to equip the state police force with voice logger facility was taken after studying the system adopted by the officers of the Intelligence Bureau, Delhi police and Andhra Pradesh police.

The system also provides the facility to demarcate an area with the help of the images gathered by Isro.

An officer posted at the state police headquarters said the tender for the supplying the equipment has been floated. Each set of the equipment, which consists of about a dozen gadgets, would cost about Rs 1.6 lakh.

Sources in the headquarters said such equipment was earlier installed at some districts like Patna and Motihari (East Champaran). Now, it would be supplied in all the districts.

“We had arrested a Maoist leader carrying a reward on his head from Calcutta with the help of the system,” said an officer earlier posted in East Champaran district.