7 South Asian nations to share info on organised crime

NEW DELHI: India and six other South Asian countries have finanlised draft structure and terms of reference of a regional platform for information sharing on transnational organised crimes.

The delegates of seven countries -- India, Bhutan, Nepal Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Myanmar -- in a conference here discussed the modalities for creation of a regional platform for information/intelligence sharing to enable all Member States to respond to transnational organised crimes, the Finance Ministry said in a statement today.

The countries finalised the draft structure and terms of reference of ther platform to be called the 'South Asian Regional Intelligence and Coordination Centre on Transnational Organized Crime (SARICC-TOC)', the statement said.

The South Asia region lacks such regional coordination mechanism unlike central Asia of Asia Pacific regions to facilitate criminal intelligence sharing and operational coordination related to organized crime, including illicit drug trafficking and money laundering, it added.

Earlier, the Revenue Department hosted a three-day International Meet 'Networking the Networks' from November 2-4, 2015 in the national capital.

The theme of the meeting was 'Countering illicit financial flows originating from organised crime'.