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.








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.