HYDERABAD: The Interpol (International Criminal Police Organisation), the world’s largest international police organisation, is ready to assist Hyderabad city police to nab Nigerian nationals, who escaped from India after obtaining bail in cyber crime cases.
The agency also assured it would track and nab the cyber criminals operating from other countries and looting the Indian citizens.
The Interpol, which provides expertise in dealing with the cyber crimes and other emerging threats to the world, has the wide range of advanced technological tools to track and apprehend the cyber crooks.
In a three-day conference held by Interpol at Singapore recently, senior police officers from the member countries shared the emerging threats of cyber crime, current trends and difficulties in dealing with the criminals.
Hyderabad Additional Commissioner (Crimes & SIT) Swati Lakra, who was nominated by the Ministry of Home Affairs, also attended the conference and shared the current scenario of cyber crimes occurring in India.
In some cases registered at the cyber crime police station in Hyderabad, several foreigners, especially from African countries were caught from New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. These people were arrested and produced in the courts, but they obtained conditional bails and fled from the country.
For instance, in a case of debit card fraud, four Nigerian nationals from New Delhi were produced in a city court for judicial remand. The offenders obtained conditional bail the next day. After a few days, the offenders went back to Nigeria.
A cyber crime officer said, “Around 15 African nationals were arrested in 2015 and 2016, from New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Gurgaon and Noida. They had siphoned crores of money from the bank accounts of Indian citizens. Many of them left India now.”
During probe, the police found that some foreign nationals, who came to India, are depositing their passports with some agents at New Delhi and Mumbai to ensure that the passports do not get seized when they are arrested.
Additional Commissioner Swati Lakra said when we shared this information during the conference, the Interpol had assured help in nabbing such criminals. The Interpol had also assured helping in tracking the offenders living in other countries and operating in India, she added.
Being in the list of top five cities with more number of cyber crime cases registered, the Interpol’s intervention would help the Hyderabad police to a great extent in ensuring conviction to the offenders fleeing the country, the additional commissioner opined.
Answering a query, the officer said, “We would request the CBI, which has the authority to write to the Interpol, seeking help. The process of sending requisition to the CBI is underway.”