Without naming Pakistan directly for “harbouring” global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, the CBI on Wednesday once again urged the international community to exert pressure on the country to hand him over to India to face trial in the 1992 Mumbai blasts.
Taking advantage of the presence of Interpol chief Ronald K Noble, who is here to attend an Interpol meet on cybercrime, the CBI director Vijay Shanker told reporters that countries fighting terrorism should extend cooperation to hand over such fugitives.
An Interpol notice is pending against Dawood, who is believed to be sheltered by Pakistani intelligence agencies in Karachi. Flanked by the Interpol secretary general, Shanker was replying to a question about the efficacy of Interpol Red Corner notices in the light of India’s failure to Dawood extradited from Pakistan. Noble said the purpose of the notice was only to inform member countries about wanted criminals.
“We can only inform. It is for the judicial order of that country whether it wanted to comply with the warrant or not,” Noble said, adding that sometimes it become frustrating for us in the absence of judicial pronouncements. Adding to Noble’s remarks on the issue, Shanker said, he favoured the idea of a move by all the members countries granting legal sanctity to the Red Corner notices.
Asked whether the Red Corner notice against the alleged Bofors accused Ottavio Quattrocchi was in operation, Noble said, “The Interpol warrant is not withdrawn until asked by the requesting country.”
Shanker said it was on the basis of the Interpol Red Corner Notice that Quattrocchi had been detained in Malaysia and very recently in Argentina.On questions regarding cyber laws of India, Noble said it was a very well established fact that India was the leader in Information Technology and had tough cyber laws.
Meanwhile the CBI is waiting for a confirmation from the Thailand police about the arrest of top LTTE leader Kumaran Padmanathan. Informing about the developments on this count Shanker said, “The CBI has written to the External Affairs Ministry about it.” Padmanathan allegedly financed the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
“We have approached the Thai authorities and also the Bangkok Interpol to confirm the detention. We have not got any response till now,” he said.
