Guwahati, March 11: Sleuths from the state’s intelligence wing will soon hone their investigative skills under a special “capsule programme” of the CBI, the country’s apex investigating organisation.

CBI director P.C. Sharma told newsmen here today that the biggest challenges before the investigating agencies were crimes committed over the Internet and organised crimes.

The role and assignment of the CBI has assumed greater significance as it has been now assigned to handle cases related to terrorism and threats to the security of the country, he said.

To face the challenge, the CBI is in the process of incor- porating modern investigating techniques from advanced countries.

These would be passed over to the state agencies by holding short training programmes for the state police and its investigating wings, Sharma said.

“We have the talent to deal with the latest challenge and very soon we will also acquire the technology,” Sharma said.

He added that the CBI has been trying to modernise its entire set-up by taking up “massive computerisation” of all its offices.

Dwelling on the increasing number of corruption cases in the country, he said the nature of corruption-related crimes have changed over the years and it has become all the more difficult to investigate such cases.

“Earlier, it used to be cases of an individual taking bribes, but today corruption has become organised,” the CBI chief said.

In the Northeast, insurgency has hampered investigations in “some cases”, he said.

However, the CBI was equipped to deal with such challenges, he added. Sharma was referring to the multi-crore lottery scam in Nagaland.

The Comptroller and Auditor General had indicted the erstwhile S.C. Jamir government in the case.

The country’s premier investigating agency is facing a shortage of manpower that has resulted in delays in disposing cases.

To overcome the problem, the investigating agency has asked the Centre to give incentives to officials who would be deputed to the CBI, Sharma said.

“We are also depending on the states. But due to lack of facilities like housing, the officials are not inclined to come on deputation to the CBI,” he added.

Making a passing reference to Abu Salem’s case, the CBI director said the Portuguese government would adhere to India’s request to extradite him after completing their own investigation against him in a pending case.

“Portugal has a case pending against him and once they complete their process of investigation, they will hand him over to us,” he added.