The Central Government reviews administrative and legal requirements of National Investigation Agency (NIA) from time to time. Since 2019, the Government has taken several measures to enhance capacity of the NIA, which include as under:
- The NIA Act was amended in year 2019 to enlarge the mandate of the NIA by inclusion of offences related to human trafficking, manufacture & sale of prohibited arms, cyber-terrorism and offences under the Explosive Substances Act, 1908 and expand its jurisdictions beyond India.
- Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 was amended in year 2019 to empower DG (NIA) to seize/attach the properties related to proceeds of terrorism in cases being investigated by the NIA.
- In order to enhance capacity of NIA in terms of specialists, the financial powers delegated to Director General of NIA for engaging consultants/ experts/ professionals have been enhanced.
- 481 posts and 10 new branch offices at Chandigarh, Ranchi, Imphal, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Patna, Jaipur, Bhopal and Bhubaneswar have been sanctioned.
Since its inception, the Central Government has entrusted 473 cases to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for investigation. The year-wise details are as under:-
|
2009
|
08
|
|
2010
|
11
|
|
2011
|
16
|
|
2012
|
16
|
|
2013
|
27
|
|
2014
|
14
|
|
2015
|
21
|
|
2016
|
34
|
|
2017
|
36
|
|
2018
|
59
|
|
2019
|
62
|
|
2020
|
59
|
|
2021
|
61
|
|
2022 (up to 29th July)
|
49
|
|
Total
|
473
|
The increase in registration of cases by the NIA over the years is mainly due to the enhanced capacity of NIA with sanction of new Branch offices and the augmented scope of NIA.
This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Nityanand Rai in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.
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NW/RK/AY/RR/1971