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Distinguished delegates to the conference, Shri A.P. Singh, Special Director, CBI, Shri Balwinder Singh, Additional Director, CBI, Shri Keshav Kumar, Joint Director, CBI, my dear friends from the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs and dear colleagues from CBI. It gives me immense pleasure to welcome you all to this one day 4th Interpol Liaison Officers’ Conference. The 3rd Interpol Liaison Officers Conference was held in March last year and I am happy that we have kept our promise to meet again within a year.
2. Friends, Interpol as an organization, is an enigma to the public, media and even to the police officers. The aim of this ILO Meet is to familiarize the ILOs about the functioning, capabilities and limitations of the Interpol as well as to discuss issues related to seeking assistance in our investigations abroad extradition of fugitives. Further this one-day conference is a platform to share experiences and know about expectations of each other.
3. Interpol is the World’s largest International Police Organization with 188 Member Countries. Interpol came into existence in 1923 to facilitate transnational police cooperation to fight crime. It has brought the police forces of 188 countries together on a single platform. India became its member in 1949 and since then is actively participating in its various activities and giving support to various initiatives launched by Interpol. Interpol is different from the United Nations. It has its own Constitution and Mandate. Its aim is to facilitate international police cooperation even in the absence of diplomatic relations between Member Countries. Interpol works on the basis of broad consensus amongst its Member Countries. The rules, regulations and working procedure of Interpol are based upon the Principle of International Law. Its implementation by the member states have to be done in accordance with their Domestic and Municipal laws. To ensure this, the Government of India has designated CBI as the National Central Bureau (NCB) or Interpol of India. NCB-India has to work as a single window for the requests received from various Member Countries and requests received from the law enforcement agencies of India in the matter of enquiries, verification and investigation of various crimes. NCB-India acts as an interface between the law enforcement agencies of the world and that of India.
4. One of the important functions of Interpol is to facilitate apprehension of fugitives and the publication of various Notices circulated through its channels. I am sure the functions and notices of Interpol will be discussed in detail during the conference.
5. Dear delegates, incidents like Mumbai Terror attack have underlined the transnational character of serious crime such as terrorism. It has, therefore, become imperative and important to have better coordination and cooperation amongst law enforcement agencies to fight such serious crimes. The new range of serious crimes which we are facing everyday ranges from terrorist crimes to the cyber crimes. Economic globalization and revolution brought out by the information technology in the area of transmission and exchange of information at lightning speed has thrown new opportunities as well as challenges before the mankind. The perpetrators of crime have been exploiting these new age weapons in perpetrating serious and heinous crime without caring for boundaries between nations. This has underlined the growing inter-dependence of law enforcement agencies of various countries on each other. The Interpol has, therefore, become a very important platform to facilitate International cooperation amongst the law enforcement agencies of the world.
6. As mentioned earlier, NCB-India is the single window contact for outside law enforcement agencies to India. The Interpol transmits requests of these agencies to NCB-India, who in turn pass it on to the Interpol Liaison Officers for execution. It is expected that ILOs function as single clearance window for all the requests received from various foreign countries related to their States and Union Territories, which include inputs to Interpol Notices, extradition matters, passport verification, fingerprint check, criminal record check, drug related investigations and similar various other such requests. Generally, the reply to these requests is expected by the Member Countries on real time basis and any inordinate delay in passing such information can lead to missing of opportunity to nab a dreaded criminal. Further, the quality of response by us also reflects upon our professionalism as police officers to the foreign law-enforcement agencies. In view of this, I will request you all to ensure that capable, sincere and well trained personnel are deputed to handle international requests in your offices. There is a need to educate and sensitize them to ensure speed and efficiency in this regard. In the present context, when National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) and Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS) projects will be a reality in a short time, we need to educate our staff to make proper use of databases through these networks. Our aim is to ultimately integrate our databases with the databases of the Interpol.
7. Friends, as you know, Interpol maintains huge databases about dangerous criminal, fugitives, suspected terrorists, missing persons, stolen and lost travel documents, child pedophiles, stolen motor vehicles, works of art, fingerprints of criminals, DNA profiling, etc. which are available for law-enforcement agencies all around the world to exploit. We should train our officers to make best use of these databases. Data available at our end like the personal particulars of suspect, his travel documents, his physical deformities, fingerprints, etc. when checked against the huge database of Interpol can provide us good leads in our investigations.
8. At this stage, I will also like to highlight the importance of treatment to the Red Corner Notices (RCNs). RCNs have emerged as one of the most potent weapon of Interpol to apprehend fugitives. We should all take maximum advantage of this potent weapon in catching wanted criminals. We should however, also be conscious of the legal liabilities and issues of human rights connected with the RCNs. As you all know, publication of RCN is followed by issue of Look Out Circulars (LOCs) to all the immigration check posts of the country so that the wanted subject is apprehended if he tries to enter or exit any country in the world. Many a times when such a subject is detained at such check posts, he surprises the authorities with a court order of bail, discharge, acquittal etc. This not only leads to huge inconvenience and embarrassment but also often the concerned subject drags NCB- India and concerned requesting agency into litigations in the High Courts and the Supreme Court. My request to the ILOs, is therefore, to sensitize their staff about fall outs of such developments and to immediately apprise the same to NCB-India, so that immediate steps to cancel such RCNs and get them deleted from the Interpol’s website are taken. We also need to understand that such subjects, when located, detained or arrested in a foreign country, immediate follow up action is required to be taken by the requesting agency for their extradition. Delay in the same at times may prove fatal and embarrassing.
9. As per Interpol’s mandate, there are six priority crime areas which are- drugs and criminal organizations, financial and high-tech crimes, fugitives, public safety and terrorism, trafficking in human beings and corruption. All these are vital for our national safety and security. All these have transnational character and often require looking for evidence beyond boundaries. Good knowledge of laws, rules and procedures by our field formations for conducting such investigations in India and abroad through LRs, extradition, service of processes are, therefore, very important. I am sure all these will be discussed in detail during the deliberations in the conference.
10. In this technology driven era, the importance of dissemination of knowledge and information need not be over emphasized. We all need to strive seamlessly towards up gradation of knowledge, skills of our men power and build their capacities by providing them proper equipment and training. This ILO’s Conference is a step in this direction and therefore decided to be held every year. Organizing such conferences on regular basis will go a long way in achieving the desired goals. It is our endeavor in CBI to organize such conferences on regular basis. In the recent past, CBI has organized the International Police Cooperation Seminar on Cyber Crimes, International DNA conference, International conference on crimes related to Human Trafficking, National Seminar on Fighting Corruption and the Biennial Conference of State Anti-Corruption and Vigilance Bureaus. CBI Academy organizes regular courses on all such topics. May I request my friends from the States and Union Territories to take maximum advantage of these seminars, conferences and training courses organized by the CBI.
11. I am also conscious of the grievances of the States and UTs in not getting the desired assistance and guidance from NCB-India at times. To overcome this problem and to strive to achieve excellence in our mutual work, we have put substantial information relating to Interpol India and its functioning on our CBI Website. List of countries with whom India has MLATs, Extradition Treaties and arrangements, together with the texts of all the MLATs and Extradition Treaties India has signed with other countries, procedural guidelines issued by MHA and MEA for investigation abroad, issuance of LRs, Extradition and Information on Interpol Notices and Databases have been put on our website which can be easily accessed. I request all of you to educate your officers about the same and take maximum advantage of it while forwarding requests relating to Investigation abroad and Interpol. I am glad that the International Police Cooperation Unit of CBI has provided all these information to the delegates on a Compact Disk (CD).
12. I will conclude by saying that let us all join hands together in our fight against crime by strengthening national and international cooperation amongst the law enforcement agencies of the world. Let us take the best advantage of the forum of Interpol to realize our goals. I am sure that deliberations during this conference will go a long way in achieving these objectives. I once again welcome all of you and wish the conference a huge success.
Thank You and Jai Hind.
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