Interpol issued highest ever number of 100 red notices last year at India’s request: CBI

NEW DELHI: In a bid to counter the perception that India’s pleas for action against fugitives are getting mired in bureaucracy or ignored, CBI chief Praveen Sood announced that the Interpol had issued a record of 100 Red notices last year, the highest ever, at the request of India. This happened even as Union Home Minister Govind Mohan was stressing the need for research abroad in the wake of “International spread of crime and criminals“.
Speaking at the 10th Interpol Liaison Conference, organised by the CBI in Delhi on Thursday, Sood said that while 29 wanted criminals were brought back to India in 2023, 19 had been extradited so far in 2024. He also informed that the agency’s Global Operation Centre had handled 17,368 international requests for assistance in 2023. Inaugurating the event, Mohan asserted that the spectre of transnational and organised crime requires real-time international police cooperation. “Prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of crime increasingly depend on digital evidence and evidence located abroad. New age crimes including cyber-enabled financial crime, online radicalisation and transnational organised crime networks are not limited by borders.
“In a world where everything is increasingly interconnected, the importance of international police cooperation cannot be overstated,” he said.
Mohan stressed that safe havens for crime, criminal proceeds and terrorism anywhere in the world pose a serious threat to any country.
The CBI director said the agency’s academy had joined the Interpol Global Academy Network in August 2023 to enhance police capacity building, and India had joined Interpol’s International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) database, which provides a crucial tool in the fight against child sexual abuse and exploitation, he added.