What a Blue Corner notice will mean for Prajwal Revanna

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to issue a Blue Corner notice against absconding Janata Dal (Secular) MP Prajwal Revanna. Prajwal fled to Germany on a diplomatic passport after nearly 3,000 videos showing him allegedly sexually abusing party workers and other women went viral on April 28.

Will a Blue Corner notice bring him back?

Interpol’s colour-coded notices

A Blue or a Blue Corner notice is a part of Interpol’s elaborate system of colour-coded notices, which, according to the organisation’s website, enable countries to “share alerts and requests for information [on wanted persons/crimes] worldwide”. This sharing of critical crime-related information is crucial for tackling internationally spread out criminal activities.

There are seven types of notices — Red Notice, Yellow Notice, Blue Notice, Black Notice, Green Notice, Orange Notice, and Purple Notice. Each has a different implication.

Red Notice: To seek the location and arrest of persons wanted for prosecution or to serve a sentence.

Yellow Notice: To help locate missing persons, often minors, or to help identify persons who are unable to identify themselves.

Blue Notice: To collect additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a criminal investigation.

Black Notice: To seek information on unidentified bodies.

Green Notice: To provide warning about a person’s criminal activities, where the person is considered to be a possible threat to public safety.

Orange Notice: To warn of an event, a person, an object or a process representing a serious and imminent threat to public safety.

Purple Notice: To seek or provide information on modus operandi, objects, devices and concealment methods used by criminals.

These notices are issued by the Interpol’s General Secretariat at the request of a member country’s Interpol National Central Bureau, and are made available for all member countries. The International Criminal Police Organization, commonly known as Interpol, facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime control. Based out of Lyon, France, it is the world’s largest international police organisation.

What Blue Corner notice means for Prajwal

At this point of time, a Blue notice is simply to further the investigating agencies’ enquiries.

The CBI website refers to them as ‘B Series (Blue) Notices’ or “enquiry notices” which are issued “to have someone’s identity verified; to obtain particulars of a person’s criminal record; to locate someone who is missing or is an identified or unidentified international criminal or is wanted for a violation of ordinary criminal law and whose extradition may be requested.”

Generally speaking, Blue notices are issued prior to or immediately after the filing of criminal charges, whereas Red notices, which request the arrest of a fugitive, generally follow criminal convictions.

That being said, all Interpol’s notices are completely discretionary, i.e. Interpol itself cannot compel law enforcement authorities to act on a particular notice. Very often, actual action on the notices is predicated on the relations between the two countries. Given India’s amicable relations with Germany, where Prajwal has fled to, it will be fair to expect that Indian and German law enforcement will fruitfully cooperate to resolve the case.

In 2020, Interpol issued a Blue Notice to locate fugitive Godman Nithyananda, who had fled the country amidst allegations of sexual abuse and rape in 2019.

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