The Most Wanted is a

most wanted list A most wanted list is a list of criminals and alleged criminals who are believed to be at large and are identified as a law enforcement agency's highest priority for capture. The list can alert the public to be watchful, and generates publicity ...

maintained by India's

National Investigation Agency The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is the primary counter-terrorist task force of India. The agency is empowered to deal with the investigation of terror related crimes across states without special permission from the states under written ...

(NIA). Individuals usually are removed from the list only when they are captured or die or the charges against them are dropped.

History

In May 2011, following the

killing of Osama bin Laden On May 2, 2011, Osama bin Laden, the founder and first leader of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, was shot several times and killed at his compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, by United States Navy SEALs of the U.S. Naval Sp ...

, India released a list of the 50 most wanted fugitives it alleged were hiding in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. The list was prepared in consultation with the

Central Bureau of Investigation The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the premier investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and governmen ...

(CBI), the NIA, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and various law enforcement agencies. According to

Home Ministry An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...

spokesperson Onkar Kedia, the CBI had named 40 people and the NIA included 10 suspected terrorists in the list. However, it was later discovered that two of the people on the list submitted by the CBI were actually in India (one in jail, and the other was out on

bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. In some countries ...

), following which the Home Ministry directed the agencies to review the list. India prepared a new list containing 48 names, and handed it over to Pakistan in July 2011. The list contained

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...

red corner notices, details of the crimes committed, aliases,

Pakistani passport Pakistani passports ( ur, ) are passports issued by the Government of Pakistan to Pakistani citizens and nationals for the purpose of international travel. They are issued by the Directorate General of Immigration & Passports (DGIP) of the M ...

and identity document numbers of those allegedly hiding in Pakistan. Similar lists had been given to Pakistan in 2004, 2007, 2010 and March 2011. However, then

Home Minister The Minister of Home Affairs (or simply, the Home Minister, short-form HM) is the head of the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India. One of the senior-most officers in the Union Cabinet, the chief responsibility of the Home Minist ...

P. Chidambaram Palaniappan Chidambaram (born 16 September 1945), better known as P. Chidambaram, is an Indian politician and lawyer who currently serves as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. He served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee ...

stated in a May 2011 interview with

Karan Thapar Karan Thapar (born 5 November 1955) is an Indian journalist, news presenter and interviewer working with The Wire. Thapar was associated with CNN-IBN and hosted ''The Devil's Advocate'' and ''The Last Word''. He was also associated with India T ...

CNN-IBN CNN-News18 (originally CNN-IBN) is an Indian English-language news television channel founded by Raghav Bahl based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is currently co-owned by Network18 Group and Warner Bros. Discovery. CNN provides internationa ...

that 'they never acted on any list,' were 'always dismissive' and described the process as a "ritual". He also blamed the CBI for errors in the 2011 list. On 26 May 2013, '' DNA'' reported that NIA had asked every

State State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

to send a report every three months on the latest activities and intelligence about the fugitives on its list. A senior police officer told the newspaper that they had to provide "the latest information on the latest locations of these fugitives, whether they are dead or alive and if they attended any religious functions recently". The move was reportedly taken to prevent mistakes in the list, like the ones that had been found in the 2011 list. In October 2018, the NIA released a new Most Wanted list containing 258 names (15 women), with the maximum reward going to the Maoist leader Mupalla L. Rao (aka Ganapathy).NIA’s ‘Most Wanted’ list has 258 names but it badly wants this man
''Indianexpress.com'', 21 October 2018 (accessed on 26 June 2019)

References

External links

NIA official site Most Wanted list
{{Fugitives wanted by India Organized crime-related lists Counterterrorism in India * Indian intelligence agencies Most wanted lists

History

See also

References

External links