India And Mauritius Sign Mutual Assistance Treaty

by Lorys Charalambous, for LawAndTax-News.com, Cyprus

27 October 2005

This week India and Mauritius, which has an Indian community of more than 800,000, signed a batch of agreements including a Legal Mutual Assistance Treaty aimed at limiting the scope for money-laundering between the two countries.

The agreements were signed in the presence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Mauritian counterpart Navinchandra Ramgoolam after the two leaders held talks on a wide array of bilateral issues.

Indian Home Affairs Minister Shivraj Patil and Mauritian Foreign Minister Madan Murlidhar Dulloo signed the agreement which will promote better co-operation among police and investigative agencies in both countries and envisages sharing of information and data relating to crimes and criminals.

India has signed similar Treaties on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters with 21 countries, namely the United Kingdom, Canada, Russian Federation, France, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, United Arab Emitrates, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, United States of America, Turkey, Switzerland, Ukraine, South Africa, Baharain, Thailand, Kuwait, South Korea, Singapore and Belarus.

Salient features of the Agreement are:

• To improve the effectiveness of both counties in the suppression, investigation and prosecution of crime, including crime relating to terrorism, and tracing, restraint, forfeiture or confiscation of the proceeds and instruments of crime through cooperation and mutual legal assistance in criminal matters.
• 'Criminal matters' means, for India, investigations, inquiries, trials and other proceedings relating to an offence created by Parliament or by the legislature of State; and, for the Republic of Mauritius, subject to the laws of the Republic of Mauritius, investigations, inquiries or other proceedings relating to a statutory offence.
• Mutual legal assistance includes: locating and identifying persons and objects; serving documents, including documents seeking the attendance of persons; providing information, documents and records; providing objects, including lending exhibits; search and seizure; taking evidence and obtaining statements; authorizing the presence of persons from Requesting State at the execution of requests; making detailed persons available to give evidence or assist investigations; facilitating appearance of witnesses or the assistance of persons in investigations; taking measure to locate, restrain or forfeit the proceeds of crime and other form of assistance not prohibited by the law of the Requested State.
• Mutual legal assistance is to be granted irrespective of whether the assistance is sought or to be provided by a court or some other competent authority.
• Assistance may be refused if the execution of the request would impair sovereignty, security, public order or other essential interest, or prejudice the safety of any persons; if the execution of the request would be contrary to the domestic law of the Requested State; or if the request relates to an offence in respect of which the accused person had been acquitted or pardoned.
  

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