New Delhi:
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday proposed hosting of the Interpol General Assembly in New Delhi in 2022, as part of celebrations of the 75th Indian Independence. He also expressed India’s willingness to be a regional hub of Interpol Global Academy by extending assistance and infrastructural support to the agency.
Shah made the proposal during a meeting with visiting Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock on Saturday. Stock on Friday also met Union Home Secretary AK Bhalla, who is believed to have impressed upon him to take action on pending requests for Red Corner Notices, including against terror accused Zakir Naik, officials said.
Bhalla held a 30-minute meeting with Stock and is said to have conveyed to him the necessity to act on the pending RCN requests against fugitives avoiding Indian laws, according to a government official.
Stock also called on CBI director Rishi Kumar Shukla where the duo discussed issues of "mutual interest".
The CBI is the nodal body for Interpol in India. The Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation is the ex-officio Head of the National Central Bureau-India also called Interpol-New Delhi. The unit works under the immediate control of a Superintendent of Police-ranked officer.
Delays in issuing RCN remains an issue concerning the CBI as in many important cases these notices have been issued after a considerable wait, sources said.
Shukla had raised issues of the Interpol entertaining the plea from high-profile fugitives on issues like human rights violations resulting in delays, they said.
They refused to divulge if it came up during the discussions between Shukla and Stock on Friday. A red corner notice is a kind of international arrest warrant for fugitives where Interpol requests its member-countries to arrest or detain them.
During 2016, 2017 and 2018, red corner notice requests sent to Interpol by the Central Bureau of Investigation were 91, 94 and 123, respectively, and notices published by Interpol were 87, 84 and 76, respectively.
Till July 15 this year, as many as 41 requests have been sent to Interpol and 32 have been published.
"Among those against whom the Interpol is yet to issue the RCN include Zakir Naik," another official said.
Naik, accused of inciting and radicalising youths to carry out terror attacks, is in Malaysia.
Following issuance of RCNs by Interpol, 36 fugitives were either arrested or located in 2016, 35 fugitives in 2017, 24 fugitives in 2018 and 16 fugitives in 2019.
"According to the available data, during the years 2016, 2017, 2018 and till April 1, 2019, a total of 27 accused were extradited or deported from abroad to India based on RCN or extradition requests made by Indian law enforcement agencies," the official said.
The Interpol Secretary General is on an official tour to India.
