116TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSEPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERSCRIME IN INDIA
Sanjiv Kumar Upadhyay *I. CRIME IN INDIA
A. General
There were 61.8 million criminal cases
reported in 1998 with a rate of 6366 per
million population. 77.8% of cases
investigated were chargesheeted in a courtof law. There were 5.7 million cases
pending in courts of which trail wascompleted in 15.8% of cases and of these,
37.4% cases ended in conviction. There are
41.6 police personnel per sq. kilometers and1360 per million population. 634 police
personnel were killed on duty during 1998.
B. Organized Crime
In India, organized crime is at its worst
in the commercial capital of India, the cityof Mumbai. The first well-known organizedgang to emerge was that of Varadharaj
Mudaliar in the early sixties. His illegal
activities included illicit liquor, gold
smuggling, gambling, extortion andcontract murders. Three other gangs
emerged shortly thereafter namely, Haji
Mastan, Yusuf Patel and Karim Lala. Haji
Mastan and Yusuf Patel resorted to gold
smuggling whereas Karim Lala operated
in drugs. During Emergency in 1975 when
there was crackdown on the Mafia, newgangs emerged. Dawood Ibrahim, the mostsuccessful, came in conflict with the Pathan
gangs of Alamzeb and Amirzada which led
to bitter internecine gang warfare. The
Pathan gangs were liquidated to leave thefield free for Dawood Ibrahim. In 1985,
there was increased police pressure which
made Dawood Ibrahim to flee. In March
1993, Dawood Ibrahim was behind theserial bomb blasts in Mumbai in which 257
persons died and 713 were maimed. Public
and private property worth several millions
of rupees was destroyed. Investigation
revealed transnational character of theconspiracy the objective of which was tocripple the economy, create communal
divide and spread terror in the commercial
capital of India. Dawood Ibrahim, Tiger
Memon and Mohammed Dosa areoperating from Dubai. Their field ofactivity is to extort money from builders
and film producers, mediate in monetarydisputes, and undertake contract (Supari)
killings. There have been instances ofinvestment of the dirty money in businesswith the result that unsuspecting
businessmen have fallen prey to the Mafia
warfare. The killings of Thaquiuddin
Wahid of East West Airlines in 1996, Sunil
Khatau of Khatau Mills in 1994, Om
Prakash Kukreja of Kukreja Builders in1995 and Ramnath Payyade, a prominent
hotelier in 1995 are grim reminders of
Mafia in Mumbai.
The other gangs of Mumbai indulging
in organized crime are those of Chhota
Rajan (Drug Trafficking and Contract
Killings), Arun Gawli (Contract Killings
and Protection Money), Late Amar Naik
(Protection Money) and Chhota Shakeel.
State of Maharashtra has enacted
Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime
Act, 1999.Other forms of organized crime
in India are kidnappings for ransom, gunrunning, illicit trafficking in women andchildren, money laundering etc.

* Joint Director, Anti-Corruption Headquarters,
Central Bureau of Investigation, India

197

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 58
Organized crime exists in other cities
too, though not to the same extent as in
Mumbai. Ahmedabad city has been thehotbed of liquor mafia because ofProhibition policy (Banning of liquor). The
Mafia became synonymous with the nameof Latif who started in mid seventies as asmall time bootlegger and grew up to set
up a 200 strong gang after eliminating
rivals with intimidation, extortion,
kidnappings and murders. He won
municipal elections from five different
constituencies with strong political
patronage. He was killed by police in an
encounter in 1997.
There are several gangs operating in
Delhi from neighbouring State of Uttar
Pradesh indulging in kidnapping for
ransom. The going rate was around Rupees
10-50 millions. Land Mafia has politicalconnections and indulges in land grabbing,intimidation, forcible vacation etc. Of late,
the ganglords of Mumbai have started
using Delhi as a place for hiding andtransit. Chhota Rajan group isstrengthening its base in Delhi.
Boom in construction activities in
Bangalore city has provided fertile
breeding for the underworld. Builders areused for laundering black money. Forcible
vacation of old disputed buildings is a
popular side business for the underworld.
The local gangsters in the State of
Karnataka have connections with theunderworld of Mumbai. One of the
Mumbai gang operating here is the Chhota
Rajan gang.
II. ILLICIT DRUG TRAFFICKING
India is geographically situated between
the countries of Golden Triangle andGolden Crescent and is a transit point fornarcotic drugs produced in these regions
to the West. In India opium is grown under
official control of Narcotics Commissioner

198

in three states namely Uttar Pradesh,Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. It is
exported to foreign countries for medicinal
purposes. Indian opium is considered bestin world. Turkey & Australia are the otherlicit opium growing countries in the world.
A part of the licit opium enters the illicit
market in different forms. Besides, there
is illicit cultivation of opium in the hill
tracks of some states. There is amoderately sized chemical industry
producing precursor materials for lawful
purposes. The illicit cultivation of opium
as well as the precursor chemicals can beused for manufacture of heroin. However,there is a great price differential between
India and the West. A Kilogram of Herointhat goes for a hundred thousand Rupees
in India may fetch Rupees ten million in
the international market. Illicit drug tradein India has centered around five major
substances, namely heroin, hashish,
opium, herbal cannabis and methaqualone.
The Indo-Pak border has traditionally been
most vulnerable to drug trafficking. Drugs
trafficking through India consists ofHashish and Heroin from Pakistan,
Hashish from Nepal, White Heroin from
Myanmar and Heroin from Bangladesh. In
the early eighties, the Border State of
Punjab became affected with
narcoterrorism with the smuggling of
narcotic drugs and arms from across theborder. This was also the time when drug
Mafia emerged in Golden Crescentcountries. There were a number of seizuresof a mixed consignment of narcotic drugs
and arms in Punjab. In 1996, 64 % of theheroin seized was from the Golden
Crescent. Although opium production isstrictly under Goverment control in India,
illicit poppy plantations have been reported
in some places.
Drug addiction in India has not assumed
such a serious magnitude as in some of thewestern countries, but there are no grounds
for complacency. There have been reports

116TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSEPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERSof drug use among the students ofuniversities in Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta
and Chandigarh. The society does notagitate too much with consumption of
Bhang, crushed leaves of the cannabis
plant. It is customary in some places to
consume Bhang on the popular festival of
Holi. There is no such tolerance for charas
or ganja which are derived from the samecannabis plant.
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic
Substances Act, 1985 deals with theoffences of Drug trafficking. Section 21 is
the penal provision which stipulates that
whoever manufactures, possesses, sells,
purchases, transports, imports inter-state,exports inter-state or uses any
manufactured drug shall be punishable
with Rigorous Imprisonment for a term
which shall not be less than ten years but
which may extend to twenty years andshall also be liable to fine. In repeat
offences, there is provision for death
penalty too.
The Prevention of Illicit Traffic in
Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic
Substances Act, 1988 provides for detentionof persons connected with illicit drugtrafficking upto two years. An officer ofthe rank of Joint Secretary to theGovernment, specially empowered underthe Act, can issue orders for detention of
the any person (including a foreigner) witha view to preventing him from engaging in
illicit traffic of narcotic drugs andpsychotropic substances. On an average
about 50 persons are detained under the
Act every year.
There were 18273 cases registered under
the NDPS Act in 1998 which was anincrease of 31.8 % over 1988, but a decreaseof 4.2 % over the quinquennial average of
1993-1997. 21386 persons were arrested
under the NDPS Act of which major work
was done by Narcotics Control Bureau, acentral agency for dealing with cases ofdrug trafficking. It has registered 11330
cases in 1998 of which 5809 cases were for
Ganja, 2713 were for Heroin and 1771 cases
were for Hashish. 62591 kgs of Ganja, 8478
kgs of Hashish and 597 kgs of Heroin wereseized. During 1998, 12601 persons werearrested by Narcotics Control Bureau,
which included 95 foreigners. 11612
persons were prosecuted in a court of law,2782 persons were convicted and 5712
persons were acquitted. 16.9 % of drugcases pending in trial were disposed by the
courts during 1998. Property worth Rupees
23.85 million was forfeited and worth
Rupees 30.64 million was frozen. In a
recent case, the Government of Orissa(State Government) confiscated property
worth over Rupees thirty million of drug
lord Mohammed Azad Parvez of Balasore,
Orissa which included an ice factory, a saw
mill, a market complex, a cloth store, threeresidential buildings and three acres ofland. The accused was apprehended by
Narcotics Control Bureau in 1998 on
charge of heroin trafficking alongwith hiswife and associates. Financial
investigation was conducted by the agency
into the movable and immovable properties
under Chapter V-A of the NDPS Act, which
led to confiscation.
India is signatory to three UN
Conventions on Narcotics Drugs andPsychotropic Substances held in 1961, 1971
and 1988. India is a party to the United
Nations Convention against Illicit Trafficin Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic
Substances Act, 1988. Government of India
has entered into bilateral agreement andMemorandum of Understanding with anumber of countries. The countries withwhich India has signed bilateral agreementfor drug control are USA, UK, Afghanistan,
Mauritius, Russian Federation, Myanmar,
Zambia, UAE, Iran, Egypt, Bulgaria,
Romania, Mauritius. India has also signed
a special bilateral agreement with199

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 58
Pakistan in this regard.
III. ILLEGAL FIREARMS
TRAFFICKING
Small arms used in guerilla warfare insome parts of the world are now available
at cheap cost in other parts of the world.
According to an estimate, there could be
750 million small weapons for such arms
trafficking. India has a long coastline ofabout 7500 kms. and a long border withPakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Myanmar
and Bangladesh. Border Security Force
guards the borders, but it is not possible tohave presence across each and every inchof the border. Customs Department has
also seized illicit arms in significant
quantities.
In India, states of Punjab and Jammu& Kashmir have been particularly
vulnerable to arms trafficking across theborder. More than 7500 pistols andrevolvers, 2500 magazines and 28000
rounds of ammunition have been seizedfrom the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
During 1997, the Border Security Force
seized several AK series rifles, 7 heavymachine guns, 204 pistols/revolvers, 18
rocket launchers, 54 other type of rifles andammunition from Punjab and Jammu &Kashmir.
On 17th February 1996, Delhi police
recovered 361 pistols of 0.30 caliber with
the inscription “Made in China by Norinco”,
728 magazines and 3738 live rounds in acavity in the undercarriage of a caravanbus. A Swiss national and an Iranian living
in Pakistan since 1981 were detained.
Investigation disclosed that this infact was
the second consignment, the first one
having been successfully transported in
1995. 22 persons including five foreign
nationals have been prosecuted in the courtof law in this case.

200

Delhi Police caught five fugitive
members of the Chhota Rajan gang
including an Assam Rifles jawan and two
Nepali nationals who were planning to set
up a major arms and money distribution
base in Delhi.
In 1993, a consignment of AK-56 rifles,
magazines, live rounds and hand grenades
were sent from a Gulf country to land at
the coast of Dighi Jetti in the State ofGujarat. Subsequently huge quantity ofarms, ammunition and explosives (RDX)
were smuggled by sea route at Shekhadi
in District Raigad. These were used for
Bomb blasts in Mumbai on 12th March
1993, which caused terror, widespread
damage, and loss of 257 lives and maimingof 713 persons. During investigation, someof the arms recovered included 62 AK-56
rifles with 280 magazines and 38,888
rounds, 479 hand grenades, 12 pistols of 9mm make with ammunition, 1100 electric
detonators, 2313 kgs. of RDX and manyother weapons. In the state of Madhya
Pradesh in central India, 24 AK-56 rifles,
5250 cartridges, 81 magazines and 27 hand
grenades were recovered by police on 4th
November 1995.
Hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight on
the 24th December 1999 in Kandahar was
the latest incident of the use of illegal
weapons in the hands of terrorists. Afterinvestigation, the CBI filed a chargesheet
in the court of law against five hijackers
and their accomplices.
A sensational case called Purulia arms
drop case was an example of illicit arms
trafficking by air. On 17th December 1996,
an Antonov 26 aircraft dropped over 300
AK 47/56 rifles and 20,545 rounds ofammunition, dragnov sniper weapons,
rocket launchers and night vision devices
in Purulia village in West Bengal. The
aircraft was bought from Latvia for US$2
million and chartered by a Hong Kong

116TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSEPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
registered company Carol Airlines.
Payments were made mostly from foreignbank accounts. The aircraft picked up
consignment of arms from Bulgaria using
end-users certificate issued by aneighbouring country. The arms were
airdropped over Purulia in the state of West
Bengal.
This case was investigated by theCentral Bureau of Investigation andchargesheeted in the City Sessions Court,
Calcutta. After trial, the court found theaccused persons guilty of offences under
Indian Penal Code, Explosive Substances
Act, Arms Act, Explosives Act, and theAircraft Act and sentenced Mr. Peter James
Gifran Van Kalkstein Bleach (British
National), Mr. Alexander Klichine, Mr. Igor
Moskvitine, Oleg Gaidash, Evgueni
Antimenko, Mr. Igor Timmerman (allLatvian nationals) and Vinay Kumar Singh(Indian national) to various terms ofrigorous imprisonment on 2nd February
2000. The five Latvians were released on
22nd July 2000 when their sentences werecommuted by the President of India.
Illicit trafficking in arms is punishable
under Arms Act, 1959. The incidence of
the Arms Act cases showed an increase of
20.8 % over the decade 1988-1998. In 1998,
63518 cases were reported which showeda decrease of 4.2% over the quinquennial
average of 1993-1997 and 14.3 % over 1997.
66868 persons were arrested for violationof the Arms Act. 19.3 % of cases pending
trial were disposed by the courts in 1998.
IV. HUMAN (WOMEN AND
CHILDREN TRAFFICKING)
Commercial sex in India is a 400000
million Rupees annual business. Thirty
percent of the sex workers are children who
earn about Rupees 110000 million every
year. There could be about 0.3 million childsex workers in India of which 0.1 million

could be less than 18 years of age. 15% of
the sex workers are in the six metropolitan
cities of Mumbai, Calcutta, Delhi, Chennai,
Bangalore and Hyderabad. Delhi receives
sex workers from 70 districts, Mumbai from40, Bangalore from 10 and Calcutta from
11 districts. Some sex workers have alsocome from Nepal and Bangladesh.
Mumbai and Goa have had incidence ofpaedophilic offences too. These places draw
a number of foreign tourists. Fear of AIDS
has contributed to the involvement ofminor girls in the business because demandfor virgins has increased exponentiallywith the fear of infection. There is also amyth that young girls in their pre-puberty
can not be infested with AIDS. A numberof young girls from southern India havebeen sent to the Arab countries. There
have also been reports that India hasserved as a transit point for trafficking ofyoung virgins from Nepal, Myanmar and
Bangladesh to the Middle East, mostly
Dubai.
Suppression of Immoral Traffic in
Women and Girls Act, 1956 was the main
Act to deal with these offences. This Act
was amended in 1978 and was reenacted
under the name of ‘Immoral Traffic(Prevention) Act in 1986’ to rectify somelacunae in the older Act. Punishment could
be imprisonment for a period of 7-10 years
or for life. Indian Penal Code stipulates
that sexual intercourse with or without her
consent with a girl less than 16 years ofage amounts to rape punishable withimprisonment for life.
National Commission for Women is abody that reviews laws, conducts inquiries
for redressal of complaints, undertakes
promotional research for policies, advises
the Government and ensures custodial
justice for women. Section 10 (4) of
National Commission for Women Act, 1992
gives the Commission powers of a Civil
Court. The National Commission for201

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 58
Women has formed an Expert Committee
and has formulated a ten year National
Plan of Action (1997-2006) to co-ordinate
with the ninth and tenth Indian Five Year
Plans.There were 8695 cases reported
under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act
in 1998.
The number of cases showed a steadily
declining trend upto 1996 but increased by
4.5 % over 1997. 15363 cases of kidnappingof women and girls were reported in 1998,
which were up by 4.8 % over the previous
year. 146 cases of importation of girls werereported in 1998 compared to 78 cases in
the previous year showing an increase of
87.2 %. 171 cases of procuration of minor
girls were reported in 1998 as against 87
in 1997 but 206 in 1994. 11 cases of sellingof minor girls for prostitution, 13 cases ofbuying minor girls for prostitution and 699
cases of kidnapping of minor girls werereported. 17247 male and 1217 female
offenders were arrested for kidnapping andabduction of women and girls. 12879
persons ( 11617 males and 1262 females )were arrested under the Immoral Traffic(Prevention) Act.

V. CARD FRAUD
Some of the popular credit cards in India are as given below:
Card nameType

American Express Gold
Bank of Baroda
Citibank Silver/ Classic
Stanchart/ Gold
HSBC Gold
Stan Chart/ Executive
ANZ Grindlays / GoldSBI Card

International
Domestic
International
International
Domestic
International
International
Domestic

There are 8000 million Rupees worth ofMaster Cards, 7000 million Rupees worthof VISA cards in circulation. Merchant/
service establishments are about 95000. In
India, credit card fraud losses haveoccurred as per the following categories:(i)Counterfeit
32%(ii) Lost cards
30%(iii) Stolen cards
20%(iv) Multiple imprint
5%(v) Mail/Tele orders
4%(vi) Others
9%
VI. MONEY LAUNDERINGIn India, money laundering is indulged
in mainly by corporate houses to evadetaxes unlike in some other countries where

202

AnnualFee
Rs. 2400
100
750
2000
1500
1200
2000
500

Interest
Rate
2.50 %
3.00 %
2.50 %
2.50 %
2.50 %
2.50 %
2.9 %
2.50 %

Max.Credit
51 days51 days
45 days
52 days
48 days
50 days
45 days
50 days

it is mostly related to illicit drug trafficking.
Non-resident Indians have been given
some special banking facilities. Thesefacilities are misused to bring back themoney as white money. For example, aportfolio account is opened in a foreigncountry and the money is laundered backto be invested in the stock markets.
Another modus operandi is to launder themoney through bogus exports. The
conversion of black money is done by overinvoicing of the products to countries like
Russia and the former Soviet Republiccountries. Some shell companies are set
up to issue bill or invoices accompanied bybogus transport receipts in order to obtainfunds against these documents from bank/financial institutions and then divert major

116TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSEPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
part of such proceeds by issue of chequesin the names of non-existent front
companies of cheque discounters. The
cheque discounters then handover cash
immediately to the party after deductionof their commission. The chequediscounters are generally associated with
commodities market where faketransactions in commodities can largely gounnoticed. The cheque discounters also
issue fake Letters of Credit and false bills.
The cheque discounters file income tax
returns in which the commission is shownas taxable income.
In India, tackling problem of laundered
money is correlated with the problem oftackling black money. There is a wide gap
between the number of persons withtaxable income and the numbers who
actually pay income tax. This is despite
the requirement of compulsory filing ofincome tax returns by any one having
taxable income. Benami Transactions(Prohibition) Act makes the pseudo owner
the real owner of the benami property. Tax
raids and seizures, penalties andprosecution have been some of themeasures to check black money. However,success has not been satisfactory. Certain
special measures such as Voluntary
Disclosure Scheme under which the evader
discloses income on promise of concessional
rates and immunity from penalties andprosecution. There have been otherschemes like issue of Special Bearer Bonds,
Special Levy on deposits in the National
Housing Bank, waiver of penalty andinterest, Foreign Remittance Scheme in
1991-92, India Development Bonds, andGold Bond Scheme of 1992.
Money laundering had so far been dealt
with under the Foreign Exchange
Regulation Act, 1973, but with effect from
June, 2000, FERA has been replaced byForeign Exchange Maintenance Act and aBill to enact money laundering law to be

named The Prevention of Money
Laundering Bill has been introduced in the
Parliament by the Government of India.
Money laundering has been proposed to bea cognizable crime punishable withrigorous imprisonment of 3-7 years which
could be extended to 10 years and a fine
upto Rupees 0.5 million. The acquisition,possession or owning of money, movableand immovable assets, from crime,
especially drugs and narcotics crimes,
would tantamount to money laundering.
Concealment of information on proceeds orgains from crime made within India orabroad is an offence too. An adjudicating
authority is proposed which would havepowers to confiscate properties of money
launderers. An administrator may be
appointed to manage the confiscatedassets. An appellate tribunal is proposed
to be set up with three members to hearappeals from the orders of the adjudicating
authority. The rulings of the adjudicating
authority are thus not contestable in thelocal courts. Financial institutions are
expected to maintain transaction records
and furnish these to the adjudicating
authority. Failure to do so is punishable
too.
The alternative remittance systemthrough non-banking channels is called
Hawala in India. It is based on trust inwhich the remitter pays the Hawala dealer
in foreign country and the associate of the
Hawala dealer pays the receiver in thehome country. Since Hawala dealings areillegal, the transactions take place throughword of mouth or other non-conventional
means of communication. Since there is
no audit, no control and no check,anonymity of the customers is maintained.
There are hawala dealers in India andwherever people from Indian sub-continent
are settled. Hawala routes are used bothby ordinary people as well as drugtraffickers, terrorists and unscrupulous
businessmen.

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RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 58
In one of the cases of money laundering
dealt with by the Central Bureau of
Investigation, an organized group of the
Hawala dealers operating from London andDubai used to receive remittances fromforeign banks for transferring to India. A
telephonic message in coded words would
be passed to agents in India to pay money
in Indian rupees. The remittances soreceived by the above mentioned persons
in dollars or Pound Sterling at London andDubai were used for purchase of gold,
drugs, arms, ammunitions and explosives
through the underworld. The arms,
ammunitions and explosives were used tobe smuggled into India and sold to various
criminal/terrorist groups while the drug
used to be distributed to the traffickers.
Electronic Payment Technologies arecoming to India and these are going to posenew challenges to Law Enforcement
Agencies. The anonymity in transactions
is bound to promote money laundering andother offences. The money launderer finds
the electronic money easy to convert andtransfer, and safe to store. The format oflegal framework, code of conduct ofbusiness and self-regulation regarding ecommerce is under examination.
VII. MAJOR TRANSNATIONALORGANIZED CRIMINAL GROUPS
A. Dawood Ibrahim Gang
Dawood Ibrahim group is the mostdreaded mafia gang with countrywide
network and foreign connections. He has
stationed himself in Dubai since 1985 andhas indulged in drug and arms trafficking,smuggling, extortion and contract killings.
His brother Anees Ibrahim looks after
smuggling, drugs and contract killings;
Noora looks after film financing andextortion; and Iqbal is incharge of thelegitimate business which includes stockbroking in Hong Kong. Anees is inlegitimate business too managing Mohd.

204

Anees Trading Company in Dubai. His
business interests in India are shopping
centres, hotels, airlines and travel agencies
in Mumbai with an annual turnover ofabout Rupees 20000 million. Extraditionof offenders from Dubai has not beenpossible since there is no extradition treaty
with Dubai. Moreover, some of theseoffenders have strong social links with
politicians and other top personalities in
Dubai.
B. Chhota Rajan Gang
Chhota Rajan was a member of Dawood
gang but parted company after the 1993
serial bomb blasts in Mumbai. He raised
his own gang in 1994-95 which is reported
to have a membership of 800 persons today.
Chhota Rajan himself is in a foreigncountry to avoid elimination from Dawood
gang. His gang indulges in drug trafficking
and contract killings. In collaboration withanother local gang, he organized killing ofa trusted leader of Dawood Ibrahim gang,
Mr. Sunil Samant, in Dubai in 1995.
C. Babloo Shrivastava Gang
“Om Prakash Shrivastava @ Babloo
Shrivastava” is facing 41 cases of murder,
kidnappings for ransom etc. He wasarrested in Singapore in April 1995 on thebasis of a Red Corner Notice issued by
INTERPOL and extradited to India in
August 1995. He has since been in jail but
his gang has continued to indulge inorganized kidnappings and killings. The
ransom amount is received by them inforeign countries through hawala(alternative non-banking remittancechannel). The power of this gang has
dwindled after his arrest.
VIII. ELECTRONICSURVEILLANCEThe Government of India has made alegal provision in the licensing conditions
formulated alongwith the cellular

116TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSEPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
operators to make it mandatory on the partof the cellular companies to provide parallel
monitoring facilities for allcommunications being received andemanating from a particular mobile set.
Cellular operators operating in four
metropolitan cities of Mumabi, Calcutta,
Delhi and Chennai have made this facility
available whereas others are bound toprovide this facility within three years of
the initiation of the mobile network.

Act but laid down certain guidelines
prescribing that the order will be issued
by the Home Secretaries at the Centre andin the States. A copy of the order should
be sent to the Review Committee within aweek. The order will cease to have an effectafter two months unless renewed. The
Review Committee will review the order
passed by the authority concerned within
two months of the passing of the order. The
total period shall not exceed six months.

Interception of messages, transmitted or
received by any telegraph is covered undersub-section 2 of section 5 of the Indian
Telegraphic Act - 1885 (13/85) which states:“On occurrence of any public
emergency, or in the interest of the
public safety, the Central Government
or a State Government or any officer
specially authorised in this behalf by
the Central Government or a State
Government may, if satisfied that it isnecessary or expedient so to do in theinterests of the sovereignty andintegrity of India, the security of theState, friendly relations with foreign
States of public order or for preventing
incitement to commission of an offence,for reasons to be recorded in writing,by order, direct that any message orclass of messages to or from any person
or class of persons, or relating to any
particular subject, brought fortransmission by or transmitted or
received buy any telegraph, shall not
be transmitted, or shall be interceptedor detained, or shall be disclosed to theGovernment making the order or an
officer thereof mentioned in the order.”IX. IMMUNITY

The issue of the constitutional validityof this section came under scrutiny of theSupreme Court of India in a writ petition
filed by the People’s Union for Civil
Liberties. The Supreme Court passed a
judgement on 18th December, 1996,
upholding the constitutional validity of the

There is provision in Section 306 of the
Criminal Procedure Code to obtainevidence of an accomplice by tender ofpardon subject to his making full and true
disclosure of facts and circumstances
concerning an offence. This provision isapplicable in offences punishable withimprisonment of seven years or more.
X. WITNESS AND VICTIMPROTECTION PROGRAMME
There is no legislation at present forprotection of witnesses and the membersof their families. Section 171 of the
Criminal Procedure Code prohibits thepolice officers to carry the complainant or
witness to court. The intention of such
legislation appears to be to ensure
independence of evidence given by thewitnesses without any influence of police.
In cases where it is important to keep
the trial proceedings away from publicgaze, resort could be made to the provisionsof in-camera trial at the desire of theparties concerned or the court itself. Incamera trial is permitted under section
237(2) of Criminal Procedure Code. Itsvalidity has been upheld by the Supreme
Court of India in the so-called Kartar Singh
case.

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RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 58
XII. ASSET FORFEITURE SYSTEM
The following provisions for forfeiture ofproceeds of crime exist:(i)
Criminal Law Amendment
Ordinance (1944)(ii) Sections 111 and 112 of Customs
Act (1964)(iii) Foreign Exchange MaintenanceAct(iv) Smugglers and Foreign Exchange
Manipulators (Forfeiture of
Property) Act (1976): “This Act
applies to persons convicted under
the Sea Customs Act 1878, Custom
Act 1962 or detained underConservation of Foreign Exchange
and Prevention of Smuggling Act.
The main purpose of the Act is toforfeit the illegally acquired
properties of such smugglers andforeign exchange manipulators in
whosoever’s name these may havebeen kept. It shall not be lawful
for any person to whom the Act
applies to hold any illegallyacquired property either by himself
or through any other person on hisbehalf. Any property so held isliable to be forfeited to the Central
Government. Section 6 provides forissuance of show cause notice of
forfeiture and section 7 provides forpassing of final orders of forfeiture.
Under section 8, burden of provingthat any property specified in thenotice is not illegally acquired
property shall be on the person
affected and under section 11,transfer of properties specified in
the notice can be declared null andvoid.”(v) Section 68 of Narcotic Drugs andPsychotropic Substances Act(1985)(vi) Sections 102 and 452 of Criminal
Procedure Code206

XIII. INTERNATIONAL
COOPERATION IN CRIMINAL
MATTERS
India has entered into Mutual Legal
Assistance Agreements / Treaties incriminal matters with United Kingdom(1992) (Agreement concerning theinvestigation and prosecution of crime andthe tracing, restraint and confiscation of
the proceeds and instrument of crime,
including currency transfers and terrorist
funds), Canada (1994), France (1998),
Russia (1993), Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan (allMutual Legal Assistance Agreements in
Criminal Matters), Egypt, China,
Romania, Bulgaria and Oman. Mutual
L e g a l A s s i s t a n c e Tr e a t y h a s b e e nnegotiated with United Arab Emirates but
is yet to be ratified. Negotiations are goingon for signing of treaty on Mutual Legal
Assistance in Criminal Matters withcountries such as Australia, Norway,
Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Bulgaria, Hong
Ling, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan.
India has extradition treaty with Nepal,
Belgium, Canada, Netherlands, United
Kingdom, United States of America,
Switzerland, Bhutan and Hong Kong.
Extradition Treaty is in various stages with
R u s s i a , G e r m a n y, U A E , B u l g a r i a ,Thailand, France, Ukraine, Romania,
Oman, Spain, Kazhakastan, Greece, Egypt,
Malaysia and Mauritius. India has
extradition arrangements with Sweden,
Tanzania, Australia, Singapore, Sri Lanka,
Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Thailand.
Section 166 Criminal Procedure Codedeals with reciprocal arrangements
regarding processes. A court in India cansend summons or warrants in duplicate toa court in a foreign country for service or
execution and the said foreign court willcause the service or execution. Section 166A of Criminal Procedure Code deals withletter of request to the competent authority

116TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSEPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
for investigation in foreign country. A
criminal court in India may issue a letterof request to a court or a competentauthority to examine orally any person
supposed to be acquainted with facts andcircumstances of the case, to record hisstatement made in the course of suchexamination and also to require such
person or any other person to produce any
document or thing. Section 166-B deals
with letter of request from a country orplace outside India to a court or an
authority for investigation in India. Under
its provision, the Central Government may
forward a letter of request received from aforeign country to a magistrate who may
summon such person and record hisstatement. The Central Government canalso send the letter to a police officer who
will investigate into the offence.

indiscriminate violence involving death orserious injury, or serious damage toproperty.

Extradition Act, 1962 deals withextradition of fugitive criminals.
Extradition can be made if the offence isan extradition offence i.e. an offence
provided for in the extradition treaty witha State which is a treaty state and for othercountries, an offence which is specified
under the Second Schedule. Under thisschedule, there are 18 types of offences.
India is a signatory to the South Asia
Association for Regional Cooperation(SAARC) Convention for Suppression ofTerrorism. SAARC countries consist ofIndia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri
Lanka, Maldives and Bhutan. Pursuant
to the SAARC Convention, India enacted
the SAARC Convention (Suppression ofTerrorism) Act. Extraditable crimes
include unlawful seizure of aircraft;unlawful acts against the safety of civil
aviation; crimes against internationallyprotected persons; common law offences
like murder, kidnapping, hostage taking;and offences relating to firearms, weapons,
explosives and dangerous substances etc.
when used as a means to perpetrate207