Context

• Interpol on January 22 issued a Blue Corner notice to help locate fugitive self-styled godman Nithyananda, weeks after the Gujarat Police sought the agency’s intervention for this, PTI reported. Nithyananda fled India last year amid allegations of rape and sexual abuse.

What is a ‘Blue Corner’ notice?

• According to the Interpol website, “Notices are international requests for cooperation or alerts allowing police in member countries to share critical crime-related information.”
• There are seven types of notices — Red Notice, Yellow Notice, Blue Notice, Black Notice, Green Notice, Orange Notice, and Purple Notice. The Blue Notice is issued to “collect additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a crime.”
• The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) website refers to Blue Notices as ‘B Series (Blue) Notices’. It says, “The ‘B’ series notices are also called ‘enquiry notices’ and may be issued in order to have someone’s identity verified; to obtain particulars of a person’s criminal record; to locate someone who is missing or is an identified or unidentified international criminal or is wanted for a violation of ordinary criminal law and whose extradition may be requested.”

Source:IE