India demands denial of safe-havens to criminals at Interpol General Assembly

NEW DELHI — At the Annual Interpol General Assembly, India has stressed the need to deny any safe havens for crime, criminals and proceeds of crimes.

India has also stressed upon the need for coordinated strategies to curtail criminal organisations which operate across international jurisdictions.

The CBI, in a statement, said that a delegation from India to Austria’s Vienna attended the Annual Interpol General Assembly, the largest gathering of senior law enforcement officials in the world.

It said that this year’s General Assembly also marks the 100th anniversary of Interpol and returns to the city where the organisation was founded a century ago.

It said that the five member delegation from India was led by Director CBI Praveen Sood and included Dinkar Gupta, Director General of National Investigation Agency (NIA).

“India has stressed the need to deny any safe havens for crime, criminals and proceeds of crimes. The need for coordinated strategies to curtail criminal organisations which operate across international jurisdictions was deliberated,” the CBI said in a statement.

It said that the Indian delegation held detailed discussions on matters of police cooperation with high level delegations of Austria, UAE, US, UK, Nepal, Brazil, Australia, Mauritius, New Zealand, Japan, Switzerland, Bangladesh, Singapore and Zambia.

“Discussions were also held for better sharing of criminal information via Interpol channels, to expedite mutual legal assistance and extradition requests,” it said, adding that India also supported adoption of Interpol’s Vision 2030 and creation of Interpol Future Council.

It said that the Indian delegation also held discussions with senior officials of Interpol, Europol, Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police Organisation and US Air Force Office of Special Investigations on “strengthening arrangements for cooperation.”

The CBI said that the Indian delegation held discussions with law enforcement agencies from multiple countries for enhanced coordination via Interpol channels with a view for concerted action to combat organised crime, terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering, online radicalisation, cyber enabled financial crimes and to prevent these crimes on a real-time basis.

The General Assembly is the supreme decision making body of Interpol and meets annually to deliberate inter alia on issues of global security, emerging crime trends and international police cooperation.

India’s CBI is designated as the National Central Bureau for Interpol in India and coordinates all international police cooperation requirements of Indian law enforcement agencies through the Interpol channels.

India joined Interpol in 1949 and has been an active member of the organisation.

India also hosted the 90th Interpol General Assembly in New Delhi from 18 to 21 October last year, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The 90th Interpol General Assembly in India had unprecedented participation of delegations from 168 countries during which historic resolutions were adopted by the General Assembly relating to strengthening collaborative response to disrupt financial crime and corruption, combating menace of online child sexual exploitation and for promoting diversity within Interpol.

The first ever global crime trend report was released by Interpol in its New Delhi session and the organisation also launched its presence in the Metaverse.

Subsequently, India has also hosted the Interpol Young Global Police Leaders programme earlier in 2023 involving participation of 44 countries.

The CBI Academy joined the Interpol Global Academy Network to emerge as a global training hub for Interpol.

It may be recalled that 2023 saw as many as 24 criminals and fugitives wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies being returned from abroad to India through close coordination via Interpol channels, one of the highest ever in a year.

Further, India has also geolocated more than 184 criminals in various countries and initiated formal proceedings for their return. This reflects increased leveraging of Interpol channels and relationship with law enforcement agencies internationally to combat crime and criminals.

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