Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan on Thursday (September 5, 2024) said new age crimes, such as cyber-enabled financial frauds, online radicalisation, and transnational organised crime networks, were not confined by borders and, therefore, in an increasingly interconnected world the importance of international police cooperation could not be overstated.
Mr. Mohan inaugurated the 10th Interpol Liaison Officers (ILOs) conference organised by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the theme “Strengthening International Law Enforcement Partnerships” ahead of the coming UN International Day of Police Cooperation.
The first session was attended virtually by the law enforcement personnel across India and member countries of Interpol, Europol, and GloBE Network.
In his inaugural address, Mr. Mohan underlined the significance of international police cooperation, stating that the spectre of transnational crime and organised crimes, required real-time international police cooperation.
“The international dispersal of crime and criminals has enhanced the need for investigation abroad. Prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of crime is increasingly reliant on digital evidence and foreign located evidence,” he said.
Mr. Mohan said there was a need for close and real-time coordination among law enforcement agencies globally to address the threats posed by terrorism and terror financing, transnational organised crime networks, online radicalisation, cyber crimes, and offences ranging from illicit flow of drugs, human trafficking, and wildlife/environmental crimes to laundering of proceeds of crimes.
Quoting from the address of Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the closing session of 90th Interpol General Assembly, Mr. Mohan said: “Today crime has become borderless, and if we want to stop this kind of crime and these criminals, we all have to think beyond conventional geographic borders, so, we have to think and act upon it.”
Elaborating on the recent initiatives for international police cooperation, he said with the Union Home Ministry’s approval, a working arrangement with Europol was signed by the CBI in March, 2024. The CBI Academy joined Interpol Global Academy Network in August, 2023. The agency’s Global Operation Centre was set up in 2022.
Addressing the participants, CBI chief Praveen Sood the police in India had been at the forefront of addressing the challenges through a combination of robust legal framework, innovative initiatives, leveraging technology, and proactive international cooperation.
He said the Global Operation Centre handled 17,368 international assistance requests in 2023 and as many as 100 Red Notices were issued by the Interpol against the criminals and fugitives wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies, the highest ever in a year. He said in coordination with Interpol and international law enforcement partners, 29 wanted criminals were brought back from abroad in 2023 and 19 so far in 2024.
An experts’ roundtable event on the central theme involved the participation of speakers from Germany’s federal police agency, the U.S.’s Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Police Agency (Japan), the National Crime Agency (U.K.), Chile enforcement agency and the Nepal police.
Published - September 05, 2024 06:50 pm IST
