Processing time for Interpol Notices dipped from 14 months to three: CBI director

New Delhi, Oct 16 (PTI) The processing time for requests from the country's law enforcement agencies to Interpol to issue a Red Notice for the detention of a fugitive has drastically decreased, on average, from 14 months to three months now, CBI Director Praveen Sood said on Thursday.

In his welcome address at a conference on 'Extradition of Fugitives: Challenges and Strategies' organised by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and inaugurated by Home Minister Amit Shah, Sood said only eight proposals for issuing Interpol notices are pending with the agencies currently, with the oldest one being a month old.

The CBI director said that, compared to 2024, when 96 Interpol notices were issued -- 52 Red and 44 Blue -- 189 notices were issued in the first nine months of 2025, including 79 Red Notices and 110 Blue Notices.

"So far, Interpol has published a total of 957 Red Notices against fugitives. Of these, 231 are related to CBI cases, 130 to NIA, 21 to ED, 12 to NCB, and the remaining to various state police forces," he said.

Sood said 189 Red Notices are related to economic offences, 254 to terrorism cases, 21 to money laundering, 55 to narcotics, and the remaining to crimes such as rape, murder, kidnapping, etc.

"As a result of the launch of BharatPol, the average time taken to send proposals to Interpol for publication has significantly reduced -- from 14 months to approximately three months. Currently, the CBI has only eight proposals under process, the oldest being just one month old," he said.

The CBI chief said one cannot take pride in these figures just yet, for two reasons: first, the number is still quite low compared to other countries, and second, the real work begins only after the notices are published.

"The next major task is to locate the wanted fugitives and eventually bring them back to the country to face judicial proceedings," he said.

The CBI director said 338 of the country's extradition requests are still pending with other countries.

"In 2023, we were successful in bringing back 29 fugitives, and in 2024, 30 fugitives. So far in 2025, 35 fugitives have been brought back to face judicial proceedings," he said.

The CBI director said that the conference is organised to take on the next challenge -- to identify and extradite as many wanted fugitives as possible, by employing the necessary skills, strategies, and collaborative efforts.

The two-day conference will see deliberations on key issues related to the extradition of fugitives holed up abroad spread across seven sessions in which state police forces, foreign dignitaries, and central agencies will also participate.

Senior officials of the Cabinet Secretariat, Intelligence Bureau, Ministry of External Affairs, CBI, Interpol coordination within CBI, Enforcement Directorate, NTRO, FIU, CBDT, NCB, NIA and Mumbai Police will deliberate on key issues, ranging from Bharatpol and Interpol products, Geo-locating fugitives, bringing them back, strengthening cases in foreign jurisdictions, pursuit of fugitives, to tracking money trail, during the conference.

The participation of Helen Malcolm, a well-established extradition advocate from the UK's Crown Prosecution Service, during a session on "Extradition--Strengthening our case--perspectives" is of special interest, with many high-profile fugitives like Vijay Mallya, Sanjay Bhandari, Nirav Modi, Vir Karan Awasthy, and Ritika Awasthy staying in the United Kingdom with Indian agencies finding it difficult to seek their repatriation to face the law here.

"This session will give an overview of international extradition laws with a special emphasis on country-specific procedures. The session will also help understand how multilateral conventions like UNCAC and UNTOC can be utilised to seek the extradition of fugitive criminals," an official said. PTI ABS ABS MNK MNK