‘You have to really look for the reasons why the court did not accept it (plea for Q’s arrest)’

We have a strategy in place for the past 5-6 years. What we are trying to do is to get more countries connected to the global communication system and more countries access documents that might identify terrorists. Our stolen passport database (SLTD—Stolen and Lost Travel Documents) has swelled from 3,000 to seven million. But more countries need to be consulting that database.

• What is the global pattern that emerges from these passport frauds?

It is a very disturbing pattern. For one, it shows organised human trafficking of Iraqi nationals through Europe and the Caribbean with the targets being the USA and Canada using stolen passports. Terrorists exploit this route easily.

• Where does India figure in this global network? Is India proposing to use the SLTD?

I spoke to Home Minister Shivraj Patil about this yesterday. We want India to give us its data on stolen passports and for India to start consulting our database before foreigners enter India. Right now, only 17 countries consult it. Once India comes on board it will take four seconds to detect that a passport presented was a stolen one.

• How will this be taken forward?

The Home Minister and CBI Director Vijay Shankar have said that our technical team and Indian officials should get together and make a formal proposal. We hope to send our proposal to India by November and have things in place by next year.

• Any other such spin-offs from the India trip?

Let us discuss the Ottavio Quattrocchi case. The fact is that most of the people that India seeks and are detained based on India’s arrest warrants don’t get out. His is an exceptional case.

• The plea of Quattrocchi and his lawyers probably will be that he should be taken off the Interpol’s list since India failed to extradite him twice. What is your view?

That is for India to decide. What Interpol is saying is that a sovereign has to decide what its standard is before issuing an arrest warrant. Interpol believes in transparency and now when another sovereign sees the Q Red Corner they will say: OK, let off by Argentina and Malaysia.

• But this information will not be...