At 90th Interpol General Assembly, the Indian delegation had bilateral meetings with representatives from several countries to discuss matters related to police cooperation for enhancing criminal intelligence sharing; geo-location of fugitives and offenders; combating terrorism, terror financing, and virtual radicalisation; coordinating efforts to prevent cybercrimes and online child sexual exploitation.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is holding the Interpol session after decades, stated that bilateral meetings were held with the UK, the US, Australia, UAE, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Austria, South Africa, New Zealand, Japan, Bhutan, Namibia, Bahrain, Russia, Canada, Oman, Serbia, Malaysia and Mongolia.
A bilateral meeting was also held with Europol to discuss strengthening police cooperation and on a working arrangement for cooperation with them, said the CBI. The cooperation assumes importance given that a nation's crime is no longer a regional issue but global in nature demanding swift action.
International cooperation
During the ongoing Interpol conference, which began on Tuesday and will wind up on Friday, the Austrian delegation met the officers of CBI and communicated their deep appreciation for the prompt investigation undertaken by the Indian agency, due to which frauds have drastically reduced in Austria and other neighbouring countries, said the agency in a statement.
The two agencies will continue to work together to complete the ongoing investigation, said the CBI.
It also added, “As a shining example of international cooperation amongst police authorities, acting on some inputs from some western countries, CBI registered a case and recently conducted searches on a call center in Shadi Khampur village, New Delhi, where victims from foreign countries were being duped by the accused, impersonating as law enforcement/Europol officers, telling them that their identities were stolen and crime pertaining to narcotics drugs were committed in their names.”
The agency stated that in order to clear themselves of this suspicion, the victims were compelled to transfer their assets/money to a trust account through bank transfers, crypto wallets, gift card codes or voucher codes.
Another call center at Noida too was traced and raided by the CBI. During the operation, an amount of about 25.83 bitcoins and approximately ₹30,92,702 available in different wallets of accused have been frozen along with an amount of about ₹30,43,025 in the bank account of one of the accused, informed the CBI.