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India told the UN General Assembly that D-Company was wrongly described as India-based. The rebuttal warned that factual errors by special rapporteurs damage the world body's credibility.
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Unitednations,Oct 22, 2026 09:54 IST
India has strongly rejected a UN special rapporteur's description of gangster Dawood Ibrahim-led D-Company as an "India-based" criminal group, news agency Press Trust of India reported. India flagged what it called "glaring inaccuracies" in the report and warned that such lapses harm the world body's credibility.
Raghoo Puri, First Secretary in India's Permanent Mission to the UN, issued the rebuttal in the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday. He was responding to a report by Ben Saul, the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism.
"My delegation has been pointing out in other forums as well our serious concern at the unacceptable situation of the SR releasing reports with factual inaccuracies, while not being held accountable for them," Puri said, according to PTI. He said this presented member states with a fait accompli and was an unfortunate situation for an organisation already facing challenges to its legitimacy.
"It is in this context that we would like to point out some particularly glaring inaccuracies as far as my country is concerned," Puri said. He noted that Saul's report said the Security Council had in 2003 listed the leader of "the India-based D-Company" over his association with Al-Qaeda.
"Read in isolation, this line paints a very different picture from the actual reality," Puri said. Rejecting the description of D-Company as India-based, he said the criminal organisation and its listed leader, Dawood Ibrahim, had been wanted in India in connection with terror attacks since 1993.
Puri said this was clearly stated in the summary explaining the reasons for Ibrahim's listing under the UN Security Council's 1267 sanctions regime against Al-Qaeda. "Not mentioning this fact is regrettable, and such incompetence on part of special mandate holders does this organisation tremendous harm," he said.
"Let me correct it for the record. This individual fled India much before the 2003 listing, and it was during this period from outside our country that he was listed for being associated with Al Qaeda and with Osama bin Laden," Puri said.
He said Ibrahim remained a wanted criminal in India and, according to the UN listing, lived in the same country where Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was found and killed, in a clear reference to Pakistan. Bin Laden was killed by US Navy SEALs during a raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011.
India's response centred on its rejection of the description of D-Company as India-based and its assertion that Ibrahim had fled the country before his 2003 UN listing for links to Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
With PTI Inputs
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