Why in News?

• Interpol, the global police body, has recently removed the red notice against Mehul Choksi, a fugitive wanted by India in the USD 2 billion Punjab National Bank fraud case.

Highlights

• Its notices are international requests for cooperation or alerts allowing police in member countries to share critical crime-related information.
• Notices are issued by the General Secretariat at the request of a member country’s INTERPOL National Central Bureau and are made available for all our member countries to consult in our Notices database
• The International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) was set up in 1923, as a secure information-sharing platform that facilitates criminal investigation of police forces across the globe through collection and dissemination of information received from various police forces.
• It Is headquartered in Lyon, France.
• Interpol has 195 member countries.
• India became member since 15^th October 1949.
• It keeps track of the movements of criminals and those under the police radar in various regions and tips off police forces which had either sought the Interpol’s assistance or which in its opinion will benefit from the particulars available with it.
• It aims to promote the widest-possible mutual assistance between criminal police forces.
• All contact of a country’s law enforcement agency with Interpol is through the highest investigating body of the land.
• The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) assumes this role in India with one of its senior officers heading its exclusive Interwing (the National Central Bureaus) for collation of information and liaison with the world body.