India-Canada diplomatic row: NIA gets MHA nod for seven additional posts

According to an official communication, MHA has said that NIA had proposed to create these posts in 2021 and 2022. “Posts of one Additional DG and six IGs at pay level in pay matrix level-15 level-14, have been approved by the ministry,” the order states.

The MHA has decided to approve NIA’s proposal as they want to augment the agency’s power.

Currently, NIA has four IGs who handle the unit of terror financing, the north-east division, investigation and policy. Each IG has a team of at least two deputy inspector general (DIG) rank officers and four superintendent of police (SP) level officers. They all report to an ADG rank officer, who reports to Director General-NIA Dinkar Gupta. “We recently sent another proposal to MHA, asking them to increase the sanction post of DIGs rank officers and SP level officers,” an official said.

The NIA has registered 73 cases, including 35 cases of Jihadi terror, in 2022, a 19.67 per cent increase from the 61 cases registered in 2021 and the highest in the last three years. Officials said around 60 cases each were filed by the agency in 2019 and 2020.

“We have registered 73 cases in 2022, which is a 19.67 per cent increase from the 61 cases registered in 2021 and is an all-time high for NIA. These cases include 35 cases of Jihadi terror in states such as J&K, Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal, 11 other cases in J&K, 10 related to Left Wing Extreme (LWE), five related to insurgents in the northeast, seven related to Popular Front of India (PFI), four of Punjab, three cases of gangster-terror-drug smuggler nexus, one case of terror funding and two Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN)-related cases,” an NIA official said.

Officials said the NIA is creating a database of the last 50 years of FIRs, investigations and decisions of the Supreme Court on cases involving terror incidents. “We are hoping that in the coming year, a national database on bomb blasts, terror funding, fake currency, narcotics, hawala transactions, arms smuggling and terrorism will be ready. We are trying to create a database of explosive materials and are trying to find the methodology of terrorists through an analysis of this database, through artificial intelligence(AI). The analysis will also help in training officers of the state ATS and crime branches,” the officials said.