New Delhi, (Samajweekly) Underling the combating challenges posed by transnational organised crime, Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla said that it requires increased operational cooperation and coordination among the Law Enforcement Agencies across the world especially to track criminals, and to locate the proceeds of crime.
The remark was made by Bhalla on Tuesday as he inaugurated the one day 8th Interpol Liaison Officers’ (ILO) Conference organised on a virtual platform. The theme of the conference was “Tracking Crime and Criminals Globally”.
In his inaugural address, Bhalla emphasised that during the last two decades, rapid technological transformations have increased the complexity of police investigations and enhanced the need for international assistance in criminal matters.
Having an effective international cooperation mechanism, Bhalla further said, both through formal channels such as Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) & Letters Request (LR) and informal channels like INTERPOL has become very important in the present scenario.
The Home Secretary also emphasised that Interpol Liaison Officers play a key coordinating role in execution of Letters of Request and Mutual Legal Assistance Requests from other countries which are forwarded to them for execution.
Bhalla further stated that the government has given in principle approval for joining Interpol Global Academy and CBI Academy is expected to shortly join the Interpol Global Academy Network, making it a regional hub for providing various specialised training courses of INTERPOL.
The CBI Director Subodh Kumar Jaiswal while addressing the gathering said CBI as a premier investigative agency have substantial experience in investigating complex crimes with international linkages and is making efforts to secure foreign located evidence.
“Digital evidence is getting primacy for successful investigation and prosecution of criminal offences and the law enforcement agencies globally cannot work in silos or work in isolation, especially when criminal elements are escalating cooperation through use of technological platforms like darknet, crypto currency and encrypted communications,” Jaiswal said.
He said that the challenges posed by online radicalization, international terror network and organised crime, transnational crimes, cyber enabled financial crimes etc. require very coordinated and parallel actions to take down such networks.
“We are working very closely with international law enforcement agencies to geo locate criminals, fugitives and for their return to India,” the CBI director further said.
He also said that the CBI has been coordinating with international law enforcement agencies to target cyber enabled financial crimes and also take a substantial action to combat the menace of on-line child sexual exploitation.
The conference has been organised by CBI which is the National Central Bureau (NCB) for INTERPOL in India. The participants including ILOs from various agencies.
