India reviews most-wanted list after errors found

May 20, 2011, 10:02 GMT

New Delhi - The Indian government was Friday reviewing a list of its 50 most wanted fugitives purportedly hiding in Pakistan after the local media detected a series of errors in the document.

The list given to Pakistan in March was removed from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) website after the local media reported that two 'fugitives' were found in financial hub Mumbai.

'The entire list is being reviewed,' UK Bansal, a senior official in the Home Ministry, told reporters in New Delhi.

Admitting the lapses, Bansal said the CBI had suspended an inspector and transferred two officials.

'We have no plan to recall the list from Pakistan,' Bansal said, indicating that Islamabad would be informed of changes soon.

Feroze Abdul Rashid Khan, accused of involvement in a 2003 train bombing, was arrested last year and was behind bars in Mumbai's high-security Arthur Road jail.

'We have an inmate called Feroze Khan in the Arthur Road jail,' top prisons official Surendra Kumar told the Times of India daily.

A few days earlier, another 'fugitive,' Wazhul Qamar Khan, suspected of involvement in terrorist bombings in Mumbai, was also found to be living in the city after being released on bail.

Another error on the list was that of Raj Kumar Meghen, a militant leader in India's north-east, who is already in the custody of the National Investigation Agency, the NDTV network reported.

The errors on the list have come as a huge embarrassment for the government as opposition parties said Islamabad could question other names on the list, which includes mob boss Dawood Ibrahim.

The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party slammed the government for its 'incompetence' and demanded Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram's resignation.

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