Alappuzha: Kerala has been ranked first in the country for identifying accused in criminal cases through fingerprint tracking.

According to a report prepared by the National Fingerprint Bureau for the year 2020, the Kerala police got the help of the State Fingerprint Bureau in cracking 675 criminal cases.

Karnataka (517 cases) and Andhra Pradesh (412) came second and third respectively.

The report has given a special mention for the good work done by the fingerprint experts in cracking the Uthra murder case in Anjal in Kollam district, in which a 25-year-old woman had died by snakebite inflicted in her sleep.

Her husband had later confessed to introducing a snake into their bedroom with the intention of killing Uthra.

The theft in INS Vikrant in Ernakulam and the death of an accused at a shop in Angamaly while indulging in the theft were some of the other cases that were mentioned in the report.

The National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS), an agency working under the National Crime Records Bureau that coordinates the fingerprint collection and examination of all States and Union Territories in the country, has been pressed into service only in the Kochi city limits as of now.

The implementation of NAFIS in other districts has been affected due to the COVID-19 situation.

Using NAFIS, seven accused hailing from other States, who were involved in crimes in Kerala, had been identified by the police.