194 Letters Rogatory pending with various countries: CBI

New Delhi, Jul 16: Faced with recent failures in extradition cases, the CBI on Friday, Jul 15 said while India responds to such requests in timely manner, 194 Indian judicial requests were pending with various countries.

Inaugurating the second conference of police liaison officers of foreign countries in India, CBI Director A P Singh emphasised that international cooperation in law enforcement and investigation was based on reciprocity.

"As many as 194 Letters Rogatory from India are pending with various member countries. This is against only 59 requests of different countries pending with Indian authorities," Singh said.

He said these statistics show that Indian law enforcement agencies had been promptly acting on requests from other member countries with due diligence.

Officials from 22 countries attended the one-day conference organised by the CBI which is the National Central Bureau (NCB) of India and represents the country in the Interpol.

Speaking on the Purulia Arms-Drop case accused Kim Davy, whose extradition was denied by a Danish Court on grounds of Human Rights conditions in country's prisons, the CBI director said India has strong a judiciary and human rights mechanism in place.

He said that such judgements wherein India is denied access to a most wanted criminal, is taken up with utmost seriousness and the Government of India has conveyed its views to the authorities in Denmark in the strongest terms.

Underlining the inter-dependence of law enforcement agencies of various countries Singh said examination of witnesses and utilisation of video conferencing for examination of witnesses have become essential for most investigators.

PTI