New Delhi The Union government is creating a registry of foreigners involved in crimes in India to assist law enforcement agencies to swiftly verify information about a suspect from another country, and solve cases related to illegal immigration, visa fraud, narcotics, cheating, and cybercrimes, two people familiar with the development said.

The computerised registry of all data about foreign criminals in India will be available to the federal and state agencies and to police stations across the country, and will be operational round the clock, the people said. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the national crimes database keeper under the ministry of home affairs (MHA), is the nodal authority for the registry, they added.

“It is a comprehensive compendium of every crime committed by foreign nationals in India. Police officers will be able to verify details such as a foreigner’s past involvement in a crime, pending cases, trial, expiry of visa etc. anywhere in the country through a single platform. It will help solve cases of matrimonial disputes, visa fraud, the Nigerian lottery scams, illegal immigration, cybercrimes, and locating proceeds of crime and tracing involvements with terrorist groups,” said a senior MHA official who asked not to be named.

The registry, this officer said, specifies case type, country of origin, previous arrest date, court cases, the state/police station involved, and the individual’s address, photograph, fingerprints, and details of known associates.

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According to NCRB’s “Crime in India 2021” report, a total of 4,925 foreigners were involved in different crimes in 2,585 cases registered across the country in 2021. Of these, a majority of foreigners were from Bangladesh (3,181), followed by people from Nigerian (798). The crime report also includes 250 Nepalese citizens, 66 Sri Lankans, 50 Pakistanis, 23 Chinese nationals, 11 Russians, and 242 people from African countries other than Nigeria.

According to the report, most foreigners (3,430 out of 4,925) were booked for violation of Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939 which largely relate to visa fraud or illegal immigration. This was followed by violations over the smuggling of narcotics (449 foreigners) and the Passports Act, 1967 (247 foreigners). Some people from other countries were also found involved in India in cases of theft, cybercrimes, robbery, rape, and human trafficking, among others.

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“This updated Crime in India 2021 data along with details of cases will be part of the registry. It is being updated regularly with inputs from states and central agencies,” said a second officer, who also asked not to be named.

MHA launched a similar registry of offenders involved in sexual offences such as rape, molestation, stalking and child abuse – National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO) — in September 2018. It is already available to law-enforcement officers, and has data of close to 500,000 sexual offenders for ready verification.

Besides, the National Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS), a central repository of criminal fingerprint data generated in states and UTs, was launched in 2021. It has integrated over 10 million fingerprint records to help police trace criminals faster.

Shreya Upadhyay, internal security expert and deputy director at Kalinga Institute of Indo-Pacific Studies said: “Having such a registry for foreigners involved in crimes in India is a welcome step as many countries in the west also maintain such databases. However, law enforcement officers must ensure that such data is not misused”.