NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday highlighted the importance of deporting and extraditing fugitives, saying extradition is crucial and a practical approach to deportation is equally important.
Addressing the second national conference of heads of Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) of states and Union territories, Shah praised the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for its commendable work in this direction and urged ANTF heads to coordinate with the CBI Director to establish a robust extradition system that is effective not only for drugs but also for terrorism and gang-related crimes.
“Just as extradition is crucial, a practical approach to deportation is equally important. A liberal approach to deportation processes should be adopted to ensure a mechanism for deporting criminals,” he said, adding there is a need for a joint mechanism involving Narcotics Control Bureau, CBI, and state police to bring back foreign criminals and fugitives involved in drug trafficking.
While extradition is a formal, treaty-based process where one country hands over a person accused or convicted of a crime to another country for prosecution and considered to be a cumbersome procedure, deportation is easier as it is a unilateral administrative act by a country to remove a person.
The home minister highlighted the need to adopt technologies such as darknet analysis, cryptocurrency tracking, communication pattern analysis, logistics, financial flow analysis, metadata analysis, and machine learning models to curb drugs cartels. He emphasised that this is only possible if everyone involved in the ‘Drug-Free India’ campaign takes ownership of the fight.
Shah urged all those fighting the drugs menace to dedicate 12 days in a year to this battle against the drugs cartels, stating that without such resolve, scaling up the effort cannot be imagined.
He warned that the trend of synthetic drugs and labs is likely to increase in the coming days and urged the ANTF heads in every state to remain vigilant, identify, and destroy such labs or synthetic drugs.
The home minister acknowledged significant progress in this area over the past year but stressed the need to prevent the creation of such labs and drugs altogether.
He said that only when the availability of drugs is eliminated will drug users come forward for medical assistance.
Shah said every state should form a special squad for following the financial trail, tracking hawala links, monitoring crypto transactions, and conducting cyber checks — only then this battle could be fought decisively.
He said every state should also have a unit of a narcotics-focused forensic lab, so that offenders cannot easily obtain bail. (PTI)