Agencies must boost synergy, share data to nab fugitives abroad: CBI chief

CBI Director Praveen Sood said that there is a need to improve the documentation so that the country's requests for assistance can withstand international legal scrutiny

CBI Director Praveen Sood on Friday urged law enforcement agencies of the country to bring more synergy in efforts to bring fugitives from abroad by coming together and sharing their database.

The CBI chief was addressing the state police chiefs and senior officers of the central agencies during the two-day conference on 'Extradition of Fugitives-Challenges and Strategies' organised by the agency.

Sood stressed the need for different agencies to come together and share their databases to bring more synergy in efforts against wanted criminals, the agency's spokesperson said Friday, sharing details of the events.

Chairing the valedictory session of the conference on Friday, Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan emphasised that the deliberations of the two-day conference would lay the road map for future strategy.

He said that there is a need to improve the documentation so that the country's requests for assistance can withstand international legal scrutiny.

"He also elaborated on the steps and initiatives being taken by the Home department to ensure that wanted fugitives are brought back to India," the statement said.

Director General National Investigation Agency Sadanand Date said the provisions of new criminal laws, especially those relating to Trial in Absentia, can be used against the absconding offenders.

The two-day conference on 'Extradition of Fugitives-Challenges and Strategies' was organised by the CBI and was inaugurated by Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Thursday.

Shah had emphasised the need for a coordinated approach to bring back wanted fugitives from abroad.

"During the two days, more than 200 officers from 45 State and Central Law Enforcement agencies, including officers from MHA and MEA, participated in the discussions and deliberated on legal and practical issues in tracking wanted fugitives and coordinating efforts to bring them back to India," the spokesperson said.

A total of 25 officers from different agencies, including the MEA, MHA, ED, NCB, FIU, NIA, NTRO, DRI, CBDT, Mumbai Police, INTERPOL and the CBI, made presentations on issues related to the extradition of fugitives.

"Effective use of channels available for seeking cooperation from abroad, use of technology in locating fugitive criminals, a strategic approach for extradition of these fugitives and analysis of the financial trail of fugitives were discussed," the statement mentioned.

The deliberations focused on narco, terror, cybercrime, organised criminals and financial offenders.

"The provisions of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act were also discussed for exploring the possibilities of taking action against the global assets of wanted fugitives. In one of the sessions, the focus was on targeting fund flows of fugitives and using the Anti Money laundering framework to trace fugitives and their assets," it said.

Besides tracing of illicit funds using state-of-the-art platforms and networks, the newly introduced Silver Notice by the Interpol was also discussed during the conference.