New Delhi, Dec 23 (PTI) The CBI has designed a new cutting-edge online platform, 'Bharatpol' that will allow police forces of states and Union Territories and central agencies to seamlessly send their requests seeking information from Interpol on fugitives holed abroad or other affairs, officials said.
The Central Bureau of Investigation is the National Central Bureau of India solely responsible for Interpol-related affairs.
Through Interpol, the CBI can seek the information needed from similar agencies of other member countries of Interpol to help investigate crime or criminals in India and share criminal data and intelligence to assist other countries.
All the law enforcement agencies submit their requests to the CBI for issuance of Interpol Red Notices for detention of fugitives holed abroad, Yellow Notices for missing persons, Blue Notice for information about a person's identity, location, or activities in relation to a criminal investigation and other such issues.
To coordinate with the CBI, law enforcement agencies depute designated Interpol liaison officers who keep regular touch with the CBI whenever they need information from Interpol on any issue.
The process of submitting a request seeking issuance of a Red Notice on fugitives or seeking a different action from Interpol was done via e-mails etc, which left the information cluttered and time-consuming.
An idea was floated before CBI Director Praveen Sood to bring all such communication exchanges on a dedicated online platform, which would reduce the crucial processing time and make it easy to monitor progress on each case, they said.
The project designed and executed internally by the CBI is in trial mode and may be launched by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on January 7, they said.
"The communication between states and CBI (Interpol India) will be seamless using a portal and not through letters, emails, fax. It will cut avoidable delays and result in getting more notices published through Interpol in the future," an officer in the know of developments said.
Since 2021, as many as 100 wanted criminals, including 26 in 2024, have been returned to India through coordination via Interpol channels.