Interpol top post poll hectic lobbying begins india expected to play key role

Interpol top post poll hectic lobbying begins india expected to play key role

India will be an important player in the exercise as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special director Praveen Sinha was elected to Interpol’s executive committee in 2021 for three years.

Hectic lobbying has begun for next year’s election for the post of Interpol secretary general with India expected to play a key role as it has a crucial vote in the international police organisation’s 13-member executive committee.

People familiar with the matter said Stephen Kavanagh (the UK), the executive director of police services at Interpol, and Valdecy Urquiza (Brazil), the organisation’s vice president, have hinted at their candidacy for the top post. The UK and Brazil are seeking the backing of the executive committee, which will decide the next chief of the global policy body.

Jurgen Stock’s term as Interpol secretary general ends in 2024.

An Indian official said India will be an important player in the exercise as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special director Praveen Sinha was elected to the executive committee in November 2021 for three years.

“Several countries have started lobbying and visits are taking place. China is also pushing member countries to support the candidate it plans to back as it wants to increase its influence in international policing,” said the official, who did not want to be named.

The extended tenure of Sinha, who retired on April 30 last year, at CBI is due to end this month. It is unclear whether the government will extend his tenure for him to continue as part Interpol executive committee.

The committee is the governing body in charge of supervising the execution of the Interpol General Assembly’s decisions and the work of its General Secretariat in France’s Lyon. The General Assembly elects its 13 members including the president, three vice presidents, and nine delegates from different countries keeping in mind the balanced geographical distribution.

There is also no indication if India will field its candidate. In 2014, CBI director Ranjit Sinha contested the election but got no votes.

“Since then, things have changed a lot. The international policing community has seen and acknowledged that Indian police and agencies, the largest in the world with around 3.5 million strengths, are highly capable, and use advanced technology and tools for investigations and intelligence gathering. Our crowd management capabilities – seen by international agencies – at Kumbh Mela, protests and dealing with various conflicts in left-wing extremism, Jammu and Kashmir, northeast insurgency, etc have been appreciated widely,” said the official.

The official added India’s success in achieving extraditions and deportations lately shows the international courts have appreciated the investigation skills of Indian police.

Officials said India’s membership of the committee has been advantageous. India has received “extraordinary cooperation” from international law enforcement agencies in investigations and extraditions due to Sinha’s position at Interpol, they added.

A record 57 fugitives have been brought back from abroad since 2021. They include 18 in 2021, 27 in 2022, and 12 this year so far. The highest number of fugitives extradited or deported in a year before 2021 was 11

. India also hosted Interpol 90th general assembly in Delhi in October. Representatives from over 130 countries attended the assembly which enhanced India’s influence. “The cooperation earlier this month between the Delhi Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Mexico authorities to arrest gangster Deepak Boxer is a classic example of this enhanced cooperation,” said a second official, who did not want to be named.