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Internal Security › Police and criminal justice
हिन्दी — Read in HindiCriminal justice reform
Arrest, detention, extradition and the new criminal laws, read for what they mean for security and for liberty.
Asked before
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Repatriating fugitives: extradition and the FEO law
Copy link to Repatriating fugitives: extradition and the FEO lawStandardPrelims and Mains31 Jul 2026
What it is
- Extradition is the surrender of a person by one State to another to face trial or sentence, under a treaty or, failing one, on an assurance of reciprocity. India's Extradition Act, 1962 governs the process; the Ministry of External Affairs is the nodal authority, and a request goes through a magistrate's inquiry in the requested State.
- Deportation is the other route: the foreign State expels the person for an immigration breach and India receives him at the airport. It is faster, needs no treaty, and is how most returns from the Gulf and Southeast Asia happen.
- The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 lets a special court under the money laundering law declare a person who has left India to avoid prosecution for an offence of ₹100 crore or more a fugitive economic offender, and confiscate his property in India and abroad; the Directorate of Enforcement applies.
- An Interpol Red Notice is a request to the police of 196 countries to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition; it is not an arrest warrant. India routes its requests through the Central Bureau of Investigation, and since January 2025 through BHARATPOL, a portal that links more than 1,400 central and State police units to Interpol.
What happened
- By July 2026, 45 fugitives had been brought back in the year, after 70 in 2025 and 43 in 2024; 274 in all since 2019, from at least 36 countries, by the Home Ministry's count. Red Notices issued at India's request rose from 40 in 2022 to 112 in 2025 and 182 in the first seven months of 2026.
- In July the Central Bureau of Investigation obtained a Red Notice against a key figure in the Punjab National Bank fraud of 2018, located in the United Arab Emirates; in June a cyber fraud accused was deported from Thailand after a Red Notice, and handed to the Maharashtra Police.
- A Standing Focus Group under the Intelligence Bureau's Multi Agency Centre, set up in January 2026, now keeps the priority list of fugitives and standardises the dossiers sent abroad; Operation Trishul traces absconders who have changed identities through satellite, surveillance and digital footprint data.
| Year | Fugitives brought back | Red Notices at India's request |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 40 | 40 |
| 2023 | 37 | 100 |
| 2024 | 43 | 107 |
| 2025 | 70 | 112 |
| 2026 (to July) | 45 | 182 |
| Since 2019 | 274, from at least 36 countries |
Why it matters
- The numbers show a change of method rather than of law: between 2004 and 2013 India extradited about four fugitives a year and had 110 requests pending; the 2026 returns are mostly deportations arranged with the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Georgia and others, with the Red Notice as the trigger.
- The weak link stays the treaty route. India has extradition treaties with under fifty countries, and the cases that matter most, the economic offenders in Britain and the terrorists in Canada and Pakistan, are the ones deportation cannot reach.
- Sections 355 and 356 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita now allow a trial in absentia of a proclaimed offender, so that a fugitive can be convicted before he returns; the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act already lets his property go before that.
Exam lens
- Prelims: the Extradition Act, 1962, with the Ministry of External Affairs as nodal authority; the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, ₹100 crore threshold, applied by the Enforcement Directorate; Red Notices are issued by Interpol, routed in India through the CBI; BHARATPOL launched January 2025; Sections 355 and 356 BNSS, trial in absentia.
- Mains: why deportation has outrun extradition, and what the treaty route needs.
Asked before: Prelims 2025 · Mains 2022 GS3
Show the questions
- Prelims 2025: With reference to the Government of India, consider the following information : I. Directorate of Enforcement : Enforcement of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 : Internal Security Division-I, Ministry of Home Affairs. II. Directorate of Revenue Intelligence : Enforces the Provisions of the Customs Act, 1962 : Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance. III. Directorate General of Systems and Data Management : Carrying out big data analytics to assist tax officers for better policy and nabbing tax evaders : Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance. In how many of the above rows is the information correctly matched?
- Mains 2022 GS3: Discuss the types of organised crimes. Describe the linkages between terrorists and organised crime that exist at the national and transnational levels.
Connects to
- Twenty three individuals designated terrorists under the UAPA (Internal Security, July): the designated who are abroad.
- Digital arrest and the money trail: the Supreme Court's August directions (Internal Security, August): the cyber fraud networks run from Southeast Asia.
- Trial in absentia (Polity, July): the BNSS provision that lets the trial proceed without the fugitive.
Sources
- PIB, August 2026, “Strengthening of the Extradition Process”
- IANS, 4 August 2026
- Khaleej Times, 29 September 2026
- UNI, 11 June 2026, “CBI brings back cyber fraud fugitive from Thailand”
Settled facts (dates of Acts, constitutional provisions, standing definitions) are from standard references.
Also filed elsewhere
- Grounds of arrest: the Court weighs a larger bench reference · on Criminal justice: the new criminal laws, police, prisons and bail
Article 22(1) requires that a person who is arrested be told the grounds of arrest as soon as may be, and be allowed to consult and be defended by a lawyer of choice.
- Police custody in parts under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita · on Criminal justice: the new criminal laws, police, prisons and bail
When a person is arrested without a warrant and the investigation cannot be finished in 24 hours, the police must produce the person before a magistrate, who may authorise detention in police custody or judicial custody.
- Preventive detention and the right to represent · on Freedoms, privacy and personal liberty
Exam lens: Article 22(4) to (7) govern preventive detention; the advisory board must report within three months; Article 22(5) gives the right to be told the grounds and to represent; the grounds may be withheld in the public interest under Article 22(6).
- Preventive detention under the National Security Act · on Freedoms, privacy and personal liberty
The National Security Act, 1980 allows a person to be detained without trial to prevent acts prejudicial to the security of the State or to public order, within the limits of Article 22.
- Prison Statistics India 2024 · on Criminal justice: the new criminal laws, police, prisons and bail
Exam lens: the National Crime Records Bureau; prisons in the State List; undertrials about 73 per cent of inmates; Section 479 BNSS (formerly Section 436A CrPC).
- West Bengal's preventive detention law · on Freedoms, privacy and personal liberty
Preventive detention is detention to stop a person from acting against the security of the State or public order, without a trial for a past offence.