India flags factual errors in UN report on Dawood Ibrahim's D-Company

India has strongly rejected a United Nations special rapporteur's description of gangster Dawood Ibrahim-led D-Company as an "India-based" criminal group, flagging "glaring inaccuracies" in the report and warning that such incompetence causes tremendous harm to the world body.

First Secretary in India's Permanent Mission to the United Nations, Raghoo Puri, delivered the rebuttal on Wednesday in the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly in response 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 (Special Rapporteur) releasing reports with factual inaccuracies, while not being held accountable for them," Puri said.

He said the situation presents member states with a fait accompli, creating 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.

Puri highlighted a passage in Saul's report stating that the Security Council listed the leader of one criminal group, "the India-based D-Company", in 2003 for association with Al-Qaeda.

"Read in isolation, this line paints a very different picture from the actual reality," Puri said.

Strongly rejecting the description of D-Company as India-based, Puri said the criminal organisation and its listed leader, Dawood Ibrahim, have been wanted in India in connection with terror attacks since 1993.

"This is clearly written in the narrative summary of reasons of listing under the 1267 sanctions regime," he said, referring to the United Nations Security Council's Al-Qaeda sanctions regime.

"Not mentioning this fact is regrettable, and such incompetence on part of special mandate holders does this organisation tremendous harm," Puri 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," he said.

Puri said Dawood Ibrahim remains a wanted criminal in India and, according to the United Nations listing, resides in the same country where Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was found and killed, making a clear reference to Pakistan.

Bin Laden was killed by United States Navy SEALs in a raid in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad in 2011.