Opinion - Editorials   

Investigating terror crimes

Advancements in technology, communications, and transport have lent a new dimension to terrorism. India has learnt the hard way that terrorist activity has ramifications — international and inter-State — that require special expertise and resources not always available with an already overstrained State police. The idea of a Central agency to investigate terrorism and related offences has been mooted by many committees and experts, the latest being the Administrative Reforms Commission in June 2008. Evidently, it took the recent attack on Mumbai to spur the Centre into doing something about suggestions on these lines. The National Investigation Agency Bill 2008, which is now before Parliament, envisages the setting up of a separate organisation to deal with specified offences. Rather than leave the investigation of terrorist offences to a specialised wing of the CBI as the ARC recommended, the Centre has gone further by opting to constitute a totally new organisation for this purpose. The Bill gives the NIA the jurisdiction to investigate offences under a clutch of legislations such as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Atomic Energy Act, and the Anti-Hijacking Act. To fast track the criminal justice delivery system, the Bill envisages the setting up of special courts.

Although criminal law is in the concurrent list of the Constitution, the investigation of major crimes is in the hands of the State police since public order is a subject on the State list. As a result, an agency like the CBI can investigate certain crimes only with the consent of the appropriate State government. The proposed Act will give the Centre the power to suo motu direct the NIA to investigate certain offences; it also obliges the State governments to assist the Agency in investigating them. As the Centre would be entering an area that hitherto was the preserve of the States, it is important that the NIA is employed in a manner that is in keeping with the sensitivities of the State police. Expertise can at best supplement but never replace knowledge of local conditions and information from the ground level. At the same time, it is important not to become over-anxious about the possible encroachment of the States’ powers as the NIA is meant to investigate only a narrowly defined list of crimes. Other federal countries have organisations with even more extensive powers — the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States, for instance investigates not only terrorist offences and espionage cases but also white collar crimes and corruption. A federal agency on the style of the NIA is long overdue; it is a pity that it took the horror in Mumbai to initiate the steps for its formation.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Investigating terror crimes
Improving museums
Russia: time for political, economic reform
Year of interlinked food shortages, climate change and recession
U.N. aid agencies facing hunger funding crisis
Rise of women in power in Rwanda
Corrections and clarifications
New bills welcome
Emergency protocol
Partition and Muslims
Legal responsibility
Cash for votes

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu