On Tuesday, January 7, Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched the Biharpol portal which aims to enhance international collaborations because of aiding agencies.

Bharatpol — a facility developed by the Central Bureau of Investigation that helps in coordinating assistance and enforcing action in real-time against transnational crimes using international police cooperation means. samt These will enable a smooth and rapid interaction with Interpol for central and state agencies, as well as aid them in accelerating their inquiries.

What is Bharatpol, how will it function, and who will benefit from it?

Why has the CBI launched Bharatpol?

As the National Central Bureau for Interpol (NCB-New Delhi) in India, the CBI maintains link with all law enforcement agencies in India and its 195 countries through Interpol. At present, all the central and state police agencies and Union Territories police are in touch with the CBI, Interpol ILOs and unit officers by letters, emails and faxes which delays crime investigations considerably.

Now remote methodological hurdles are removed with the opening up of Bharatpol, where international police interaction is required.

The necessity to create this portal arose in the context of growth of transnational crimes like- cyber-crimes, crime including financial crime, online radicalisation, organised crime, drug trafficking and human trafficking. In such cases instantaneous international response is necessary for the purposes of the investigations.

What are the key characteristics of Bharatpol portal?

There are five key requirements:

Unified Platform: This portal consolidates the CBI as the Interpol (NCB-New Delhi) together with all law enforcement in India including SPs and CPs.

Simplified Request Mechanism: This portal assists front line policeman in sending and responding to calls for assistance in the form of standard template forms sent to 195 Interpol member countries.

Rapid Information Dissemination: This portal allows CBI acting as and NCB to retrieve criminal intelligence through different inputs from 195 different member countries to all law enforcement agencies in India.

Increase utilization of Interpol notices: This portal will ease composing formulated requests for Red Corner Notice and other colour coded notices of Interpol. This will ensure crime, criminal and proceeds tracking across the globe.

Capacity Building and Training: This site also hosts an assortment of templates, documents, and training materials which further improves Interpol’s capability for frontline officers who are willing to conduct international investigations and acquire foreign assistance seamlessly.

What did Home Minister Amit Shah say at the launch?

Amit Shah made these comments at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, where he stated India has the potential nabs so many fugitives and Indian investigation agencies should make use of” modern technology and techniques”. “We have to keep an eye on global challenges and update our internal systems. Bharatpol is a step in that direction…The new portal will allow central and state probe agencies to share and obtain information on their cases from the 195 member nations of the Interpol,” he explained.

What are the key modules of Bharatpol?

The five modules include Connect, INTERPOL Notices, References, Broadcast, and Resources.

“Through Connect, all our law enforcement agencies will essentially function as an extension of Interpol’s NCB-New Delhi. What such a mechanism will do is to enable quick transmission of requests for Interpol Notices and with a scientific mechanism allow swift locating of criminals from India and the other parts of the world to India,” Said Shah.

The Broadcasting module will have Requests for Assistance from the other 195 member countries of INTERPOL available, whereas the Resources module will facilitate the exchange and management of documents and resources.