The CBI has initiated the process of deploying its “liaison officers” in Dubai, London and New York to coordinate with foreign agencies to expedite execution of its judicial requests.
According to sources, the CBI officials, posted outside India, will be called as police liaison officers (PLOs). The DIG-rank officers of the CBI will be deployed as PLOs in Dubai, London and New York, sources added.
“The agency had demanded a sanction of seven such posts but only three have been cleared. It was proposed to post PLOs from the CBI in countries with whom we deal most frequently in criminal matters,” sources said.
Sources further said, “With a view to enable the CBI to follow up the execution of pending letters rogatory (LR) on real-time basis and maintain close liaison with other law enforcement agencies, the agency has initiated the process of deputing its PLOs in three countries.”
As many as 195 letters rogatory from India are pending with various member countries, sources said. “This is against only 60 requests of different countries pending with the Indian authorities. These statistics show that the Indian law enforcement agencies had been promptly acting on requests from other member countries with due diligence,” sources said.
It is important to have better coordination and cooperation among the law enforcement agencies of other countries to fight certain serious crimes, including terrorism and cyber crime, sources said.