Institutional integrity of CBI at stake

Is the Central Bureau of Investigation still the premiere investigation agency of India? Or Is it a Comical Bureau of Intrigue as a journo put it? Is it still ‘’a caged parrot’’ as the Supreme Court described it in 2013? When will it be the Confidence Builder of India? Two Directors of the CBI are now at daggers drawn hurling mutual accusations unprecedented and in the process reducing the dignity of the agency and its office as a convenient ground for turf war . Has not the image of the CBI been besmirched with the CBI itself registering unheard of First Information Reports against its own Special Director?

It is both surprising and shocking that no lessons were learnt by the top cops of the CBI, despite severe stricture passed by the Supreme Court in the past. It held that the charges that the former Director Ranjit Sinha sought to help the accused in several cases and unduly meddled with the ongoing probes were ‘’prima facie credible’’ The court asked him to keep away from the 2G telecom cases. Another Director A.P Singh had the ignominy of being booked last year for his alleged links with the meat exporter Moin Qureshi.

Though the Centre has tried to rationalise its role of impartiality by divesting both the directors of their offices, it has yet to justify its legality of action as to how a Director of the CBI who is assured of a two year tenure is suddenly stripped of his office and forced to go on leave. Legal pundits are sure to question the CVC’s powers of superintendence and also the political establishment as Mr Verma has now submitted to the Supreme Court that the treatment accorded to him is tantamount to ‘’ violation of his fundamental rights’’ and amounted to ‘’ a blot on CBI’s independence. Stating that political interference is not always in ink or explicit, he said ‘’More often than not, it is tacit and requires considerable courage to withstand.’

To the horror of the ruling party which is criticised for its role in the Raphael deal, the statement of Mr Verma that the ‘’ CBI ought to be insulated from the government; the present actions give serious credence to the requirement that the CBI be given independence from the DoPT which seriously hinders the independent functioning of the institution’ is sure to make the ruling establishment introspect and retrace its faulty and flawed steps and restore the institutional integrity and autonomy of the premiere investigation agency.