India Tracks 71 Fugitives Abroad in 2024–25, Highest in 12 Years; CBI, MEA and MHA Intensify Global Crackdown on Economic Offenders and Criminals

Key Points:

A recently released official government report by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), reveals that Indian agencies have successfully located more than 70 fugitives abroad. The DoPT lies under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. The aforementioned annual report, released late January 2026, by the DoPT, highlights the data of 2024-2025. 

According to the report, the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) located the fugitives through its Global Operations Centre. The intelligence agency, coordinating with several foreign intelligence and law enforcement agencies, optimised the use of geo locations to trace the exact location of the wanted fugitives. The CBI is India's national central bureau for Interpol. It issued notices for the fugitives through Interpol.

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27 Fugitives Brought Back To India Through MEA And MHA Coordination

Out of the 71 fugitives located, the CBI successfully coordinated with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to bring back 27 for justice in India. The DoPT report also mentions that as many as 203 fugitives wanted by other countries were located in India.

The annual report by DoPT also highlights that the CBI extensively executed Lookout Circulars (LCs), and coordinated with the Interpol to issue several Red Corner Notices. Between April 2024 and March 2025, 47 legal requests were fully carried out abroad, while 29 were only partly completed. However, 533 requests were still pending by March 31, 2025, including 276 linked to CBI cases and 257 from state police. 

The CBI submitted more than 22,000 applications on the official MHA portal, requesting renunciation of Indian citizenship for those applications. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has previously talked about the importance of judicial processes to successfully extradite fugitives. During the Winter Session of Parliament in 2025, the MEA, on December 19, 2025, stated that India officially signed extradition treaties with 48 countries. India also successfully arranged extradition of fugitives from 12 countries, MEA further stated.

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Government Strengthens Extradition Treaties And Global Police Cooperation

Minister of State Kirti Vardhan Singh, in the MEA, while presenting the aforementioned data in Parliament on December 19, 2025, also said: “In addition, India is a party to various multilateral conventions such as United Nations Convention against Corruption, United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings and the SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism, which can serve as a legal framework to bring back fugitive criminals from the countries who are also the parties to these conventions.”

The MEA further stated that over the past five years, India has sent 137 extradition requests to other countries, of which 134 were accepted, while 125 remain pending and three were rejected. During this period, 25 fugitives were successfully extradited to India. India also received 108 extradition requests from foreign governments and extradited 10 fugitives abroad. The government continues to strengthen extradition efforts through bilateral treaties and regular diplomatic and consular consultations to resolve pending cases.

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