Union Home Secretary inaugurates Interpol Liaison Officers' conference

Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla inaugurated the Interpol Liaison Officers' conference organised by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in New Delhi on 'Mutual Legal Assistant Treaty (MLAT)/Letter Rogatory (LR) and Extradition' matters.

Union Home Secretary inaugurates Interpol Liaison Officers' conference
Source: IANS

New Delhi, Dec 27 (IANS) Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla inaugurated the Interpol Liaison Officers' conference organised by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in New Delhi on 'Mutual Legal Assistant Treaty (MLAT)/Letter Rogatory (LR) and Extradition' matters.

The participants including Interpol Liaison Officers (ILOs) from states, Union Territories, other Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) and officers from the CBI attended the conference.

Speaking on the occasion, Bhalla said that Union Home Ministry has designed a new on-line portal on Mutual Legal Assistant Treaty (MLAT)/Letter Rogatory (LR) requests which can be utilised for the purpose, and assured further assistance, if needed.

"For effective law enforcement in respect of crimes having transnational footprints, Bhalla emphasised the need to further impart training on LRs and MLATs to personnel in the law enforcement chain and offered all assistance in this regard including organising workshops/conferences in the states," he said.

Bhalla further stressed that the request from other countries for legal assistance should also be treated on priority as part of reciprocity. He invited feed-back and practical suggestions towards improving the efficacy of international cooperation channels for assistance in criminal matters.

It was underlined that LEAs should make use of informal channels of police cooperation for seeking & sharing information on 24X7 platform of Interpol through CBI as well as Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). The workshop also focussed on utilising Interpol Notices and drafting requests focusing on crime.

The one-day conference deliberated on the subject "Presentation on Guidelines of MLA/LRs & Procedural aspects of drafting LRs/MLA requests; Presentation on new MLA/LR portal, Presentation on extradition guidelines & procedural aspect of drafting extradition requests; Informal Cooperation through Interpol and points to be kept in mind while making request for Interpol Matters".