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New Delhi, Oct 15 (IANS) Union Home Minister and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah will inaugurate a two-day conference on ‘Extradition of Fugitives: Challenges and Strategies’ in New Delhi on Thursday, October 16, a government statement said on Wednesday.
This program is being organized by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The conference, which will be attended by senior officers from various central and state police organizations, will focus on strengthening international police cooperation to trace and bring back wanted fugitives to India.
Officials from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) as well as other stakeholders will also participate.
The two-day deliberations will cover a range of topics, including effective use of formal and informal channels for international cooperation, leveraging technology to trace fugitive criminals, strategic approaches to extradition and analysis of financial footprints of wanted criminals.
The special sessions will discuss issues related to narcotics, terrorism, cyber crime, organized crime and economic crimes.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has increased its focus on international cooperation in criminal investigations. In July this year, Amit Shah had called for a coordinated approach to expedite the return of wanted fugitives from abroad. The objective of the conference is to develop strategies to achieve this goal through legal and diplomatic channels in a time bound manner.
Currently, more than 300 extradition requests from India are pending with various foreign governments. Officials acknowledge that delays in these cases are often caused by fugitives taking advantage of legal loopholes in host countries. Many of these criminals are associated with organized criminal syndicates and operate from abroad.
During the conference, law enforcement agencies and domain experts will deliberate on practical solutions to address these challenges and create a roadmap for speedy extradition of fugitive criminals.
Shah had earlier launched the Bharatpol portal, developed by the CBI, which integrates district police units, state police, central law enforcement agencies and the CBI on a single platform to enable seamless information exchange.
CBI hopes that the discussions and exchange of views during the conference will help in formulating new strategies and enhance coordination among agencies to strengthen India’s efforts to bring fugitives to justice.
–IANS
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