Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi with his UK counterpart Patsy Wilkinson at the first India-UK Home Affairs Dialogue, in New Delhi on Thursday. (Source: PTI photo) Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi with his UK counterpart Patsy Wilkinson at the first India-UK Home Affairs Dialogue, in New Delhi on Thursday. (Source: PTI photo)

India and the United Kingdom have agreed to finalise a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on criminal matters, organised crime and illegal migrants in July after New Delhi raised objections to certain clauses of the MoU proposed earlier by Britain.

The matter was discussed during the first ever India-UK Home Affairs Dialogue, during which extradition issues, including that of fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya, also came up.

The Indian Express on May 3 was the first to report on the reservations expressed by India on the proposed MoU.

Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi held discussions with his UK counterpart Patsy Wilkinson, second permanent secretary in the British Home Office, here on Thursday.

“We discussed how to remove the bottlenecks in processing extradition requests. The process involved in matters of extradition and the need to further improve them were also discussed,” said Home Ministry Adviser Ashok Prasad. Although Prasad maintained that no specific case was discussed at the meeting, sources said that the Mallya case was raised by Mehrishi. Prasad said the case of Mallya — who is wanted in a bank default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines — was subjudice.

“We also discussed the issue of Khalistani militants based in the UK and they have promised to look into it,” Prasad added.

Both sides agreed to address the challenges of illegal migrants and work together to ensure smooth return of Indians overstaying in the UK after proper verification. Prasad said the Indian side brought up visa-related difficulties faced by Indian students, skilled professionals and dependents of Indian diplomats, which the UK official assured would be looked into.

“Both India and the UK laid emphasis on cooperation on anti-terrorism mechanism and to strengthen mutual support to check cyber crimes. Both sides agreed to finalise these arrangements,” Prasad said.

Sharing of intelligence inputs on real-time basis, particularly with regard to IS, both from IS-held territories and modules being busted in the UK and Europe, were discussed at the two-hour meeting, sources said. Counter-terrorism cooperation, matters relating to the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty and visa-related issues were also deliberated upon.

Officials said India told the British delegation that if one-on-one contact could be established between the prosecuting agency in India and the Crown Prosecution or Department of Prosecution, it would be quicker and easier to present evidence before the judge concerned.

The Indian side said authorities here would inform the UK about court hearings in cases of criminals wanted by Britain living in India and wanted this to be reciprocated. India also offered to drop cases registered against a Bangladeshi national, who is lodged in Assam, so he can be extradited to England.

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