Southern States to share information on extremism

The Directors-General of Police of Southern States have decided to appoint nodal officers from intelligence and crime wings in each State for facilitating sharing of information on real-time basis, for effectively tackling left wing extremism, terrorism and other organised crimes.


The officers will share photographs of left wing extremists, terrorists and other offenders daily.
Alerts will be issued through mail on offenders and, whenever a terrorist or organised crime module is busted, the nodal officers will be informed about all the details.
In the third meeting held on Wednesday, the DGPs, along with police chiefs of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala, resolved to take up the issue of fake notes being circulated by gangs from Malda with their West Bengal counterpart.
The meeting also discussed reports of Maoist activity spreading to Tamil Nadu. Andhra Pradesh DGP R.R. Girish Kumar briefed his Tamil Nadu counterparts about the measures to be adopted to contain extremist activity.
“There was a presumption that there is a Maoist network over there. Their presence was noticed in 2008 and suitable action has been taken to see that there is no movement on Tamil Nadu,” Tamil Nadu DGP Letika Saran said.
Ms. Saran said the police were guarding the areas where the presence of Maoists was perceived and frequent monitoring was put in place to ensure that the activity did not spread.
“But there is an absolute necessity for meetings like this to share information and adopt best practices.”
The meeting discussed the issue of offenders from Andhra Pradesh taking refuge in other States and evading non-bailable warrants (NWB). Mr. Kumar, who raised the issue, pointed out that 1,144 warrants were pending execution against the accused residing in other States.
The meeting resolved to allow the superintendents/commissioners of police to send their teams to execute the NBWs pending in the southern States.
Single-window mechanism
In regard to accused living abroad, Mr. Kumar said it was decided to request the Centre to create a single-window mechanism for processing letter rogatory, extradition and look-out circular.
It was resolved to organise meetings of the heads of intelligence organisations every six months for exchange of information, sharing monthly bulletins in cyber crime investigations and to ensure meetings of special group handling terrorist activities on quarterly basis.