We have learnt our lesson: CBI on list goof-up

Stung by blooper in the most wanted list handed over to Pakistan, the Central Bureau of Investigation will carry out an extensive overhaul of its Interpol division with an essential quarterly review of the Red Corner List with all states.

The agency has about 550 cases of wanted criminals against whom Red Corner Notices have been issued. In most of the cases, the notices have been issued at the request of state governments while some of them are being probed by the CBI itself.

A Red Corner Notice issued by Interpol allows all the member countries to arrest a person, against whom it is issued, if spotted in their country. The CBI being the nodal agency for Interpol issues in India, these notices are issued by it.

"Some of these cases are quite old and there is no update from the state police. Whenever there is arrest of wanted person or there is any update about them, state police should inform the CBI which is not done in many cases," sources privy to the development said.

The CBI has started review of all the wanted persons against whom Interpol notices have been issued, and communications are being sent to respective state police to give update about these persons, the sources said.       

"From now on, a quarterly review of the list will be done with the state police while cases under agency probe will be done on real-time basis," a source said.

Accepting that the incident of Feroz Rashid Khan came as "lesson" for the CBI, the sources said a report has been sought from the Policy Department on the overhaul of Interpol division of the agency which will be submitted within a week.

After the first case of Wazhul Kamar Khan, whose name figured in the '50 most wanted fugitives' list submitted to

Pakistan but found to be staying in a Mumbai suburb had surfaced, the CBI had reviewed all the 27 cases which were contributed by it in the list and found that one more such mistake (of Feroz Rashid Khan) had taken place, they said.

It was "not acceptable" because the case of Feroz was handled by only CBI, unlike other case (Wazhul) which was handled by Mumbai Police, and his Red Corner Notice should have been cancelled immediately after his arrest, they said.

Following the goof-up, the agency swung into action and suspended one inspector and transferred a Superintendent of police and a Deputy Superintendent of police allegedly responsible for it.

On the issue of Raj Kumar Meghen, a United National Liberation Front leader, who figured in the RCN list despite being in the custody of National Investigation Agency, CBI sources said in his case, the RCN was issued by Manipur police but neither the state police nor the National Investigation Agency requested for withdrawal of the notice.