India Plans Dedicated Squad to Fast-Track High-Stakes Extraditions
MEA, CBI and other agencies join forces to secure the return of wanted criminals hiding abroad
New Delhi: Adopting a more assertive attitude in tracking down its fugitives hiding overseas, India is working on an aggressive strategy to secure high-stakes and complex extradition cases. Accordingly, in order to strongly push for the success of its extradition requests with partner countries, the government is planning to set up a special team that will negotiate the extradition of various wanted persons in India in a more effective and forceful way.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) recently called a high-level meeting on extradition and mutual legal assistance in which senior officers of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Enforcement Directorate (ED), National Investigation Agency and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) participated. The meeting was chaired by Secretary (Counselor, Passport, Visa and Overseas Indian Affairs) Ms Sripriya Ranganathan with stakeholders including key Indian missions abroad. The idea was to strategise and work in tandem to further strengthen India’s efforts to bring back fugitives and law enforcement cooperation with key partner countries. During the meeting, Ms Ranganathan highlighted the importance of a ‘whole-of-government’ approach to the issue and underlined the critical role of Indian missions abroad.
CBI is the nodal agency that issues Interpol Red Notices while MEA negotiates with the countries through its missions. The CBI website shows Interpol Red Notice against 379 individuals, including jewellers Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi – accused in financial fraud -- against whom extradition process is at higher stages in Belgium and United Kingdom, respectively.
A senior officer of the Indian Foreign Services is expected to be deputed to lead delegations focused on high-stakes extradition negotiations. India had recently had successful extraditions of fugitives accused of terrorism, narcotics, organized criminal gangs and economic offences. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, 274 fugitive criminals have been extradited or deported to India from 36 countries between 2019 and mid-2026, aided by digital tracking tools like Operation Trishul and Bharatpol.
Some of the recent successful yet complex extraditions include that of Tahawwur Hussain Rana from the United States of America, wanted in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack case. He was brought to Indian in 2025. This year the success rate is rather impressive as in September India secured extradition of Amritpal Singh from Moldova. He was wanted in multiple serious criminal cases registered in Punjab which included murder, offences under the Arms Act and narcotics laws apart from being charged with using forged documents and violations of the Passport Act.
Dawood aide and drug trafficker Salim Dola was extradited from Turkey in April. Gangsters Amnol Bishnoi, killer of Baba Sidddiqui and Himanshu Bhau were extradited from the US and Mainpal Badli, another gangster from Haryana, was extradited from Cambodia. Sajeer Palli Mooppam, a jeweler accused of rape, was extradited from the United Arab Emirates, while the accused in the Mahadev betting app scam, Saurav Chandrakar Mahadev too was extradited from UAE. In fact, the promoter of the Mahadev betting app and accused in the scandal, Ravi Uppal, has been recently arrested in UAE and India has swiftly moved for his extradition too.
India has extradition treaty, a formal legally binding bilateral arrangement, with 48 countries and “extradition arrangements,” a less formal, case-by-case reciprocity, with 12 apart from having special arrangements with Italy and Croatia on crimes related to illicit traffic in narcotics drugs and psychotropic substances owing to the fact that India, Italy and Croatia are parties to the 1988 UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.
