NEW DELHI: India's premier investigation agency - Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) - is all set to join the Interpol Global Academy Network. The government of India after accepting its imperative has given approval in principle to this.
Confirming this at a day-long Interpol Liaison Officers(ILOs) conference on Tuesday here, Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla said: "The Government of India 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 conference was organized on the virtual platform by CBI as the National Central Bureau (NCB) for INTERPOL in India with the participants, including Interpol Liaison Officers (ILOs) drawn from States, Union Territories, other Law Enforcement Agencies and CBI.
Bhalla further said that the Ministry of Home Affairs has also issued comprehensive guidelines on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters. "These guidelines have provided a detailed process for seeking assistance from abroad by sending Court issued Letter of Request and also the MHA issued Mutual Legal Assistance Requests," he said.
Speaking as the chief guest after inaugurating the conference, Bhalla also underlined that combating challenges posed by transnational organized crime requires increased operational cooperation and coordination among the Law Enforcement Agencies across the world, especially to track criminals, exchange of information on criminal activities and to locate the proceeds of crimes.
He also emphasized 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.
At the 8th one-day long ILOs conference on 'Tracking Crime and Criminals Globally', he also said that during the last two decades, rapid technological transformations have multiplied the complexity of police investigations and enhanced the needs for international assistances in criminal matters .
"Having effective international cooperation, mechanisms both through formal channels such as MLAT (Mutual Legal Assistance Request) and LR (Letter of Request) from other countries and informal channels like INTERPOL has become very important in the present scenario," Bhalla said.