New Delhi, Sept 16: Union Home Minister Amit Shah emphasized the critical need for effective extradition and a practical approach to deportation during the second national conference of Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) heads on Tuesday.
He commended the CBI’s efforts and urged ANTF leaders to collaborate with the CBI Director to create a strong extradition system targeting not only drug trafficking but also terrorism and gang-related crimes.
Shah advocated for a liberal deportation process and a joint mechanism involving the Narcotics Control Bureau, CBI, and state police to bring foreign criminals and fugitives to justice.
“Just as extradition is crucial, a practical approach to deportation is equally important. A liberal approach to deportation processes should be adopted to ensure a mechanism for deporting criminals,” Shah said.
While extradition is a formal, treaty-based process where one country hands over a person accused or convicted of a crime to another country for prosecution and considered to be a cumbersome procedure, deportation is easier as it is a unilateral administrative act by a country to remove a person.
The home minister highlighted the need to adopt technologies such as darknet analysis, cryptocurrency tracking, communication pattern analysis, logistics, financial flow analysis, metadata analysis, and machine learning models to curb drugs cartels. He emphasised that this is only possible if everyone involved in the ‘Drug-Free India’ campaign takes ownership of the fight.
Shah urged all those fighting the drugs menace to dedicate 12 days in a year to this battle against the drugs cartels, stating that without such resolve, scaling up the effort cannot be imagined.
He warned that the trend of synthetic drugs and labs is likely to increase in the coming days and urged the ANTF heads in every state to remain vigilant, identify, and destroy such labs or synthetic drugs.
The home minister acknowledged significant progress in this area over the past year but stressed the need to prevent the creation of such labs and drugs altogether.
He said that only when the availability of drugs is eliminated will drug users come forward for medical assistance.
Shah said every state should form a special squad for following the financial trail, tracking hawala links, monitoring crypto transactions, and conducting cyber checks — only then this battle could be fought decisively.
He said every state should also have a unit of a narcotics-focused forensic lab, so that offenders cannot easily obtain bail.
