People's Democracy

What Is Wrong With The CBI?

By Our Political  Commentator

THE news that a senior CBI police officer was arrested in Kolkata for taking a bribe has caused widespread concern. Parthasarathi Bose, the Deputy Superintendent of Police of CBI Special Crime Branch was arrested on December 28, 2008 while receiving a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a truck operator who was being threatened by the officer to falsely implicate him in a murder case. This is the same officer who investigated the Tapasi Malik murder case in Singur and the Rizwanur Rehman case in Kolkata. In the Tapasi murder case, a CPI(M) leader Surhid Dutta was arrested and chargesheeted after the investigation. He has since been sentenced by the court but there are serious misgivings about the way in which he was implicated in the case. In the Rizwanur case, it is alleged that Bose did not take cognizance of the role of a Trinamul MLA who was mentioned in the suicide note left by Rizwanur.

In August 2007, another CBI officer, A K Sahay, Superintendent of Police who was in-charge in the Special Crime Branch of the CBI in Kolkata, was arrested on charges of extortion and amassing wealth disproportionate to his income. It was under his supervision that these cases were investigated.

A delegation of Left Front MPs have met the Prime Minister pointing out the state of affairs in the CBI in Kolkata and asking that the cases be reexamined in the light of the corruption charges against Parthasarathi Bose.

That two senior officers in the CBI are charged with corruption and for extortion by falsely implicating people shows the rot which has affected the central investigation agency.

The integrity of the CBI has got further eroded by the manner in which the ruling party at the Centre seeks to use the agency for its political purposes. Recently, the CBI Counsel moved a petition in the Supreme Court for withdrawal of an earlier application in the case against Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family members for possessing disproportionate assets. The circumstances in which this case was filed was itself controversial. Now that the Samajwadi Party leader has joined hands with the Congress, the UPA government has decided that there is no case to be pursued and the CBI has complied by putting in its request for closing the case. This blatant use of the CBI as a political instrument and making corruption a matter of political football by the Congress party and the Manmohan Singh government is not only shocking but deserves a serious enquiry as to who is responsible for subverting institutions like the CBI.

As of now, the CBI stands demeaned and its integrity questioned by the corruption episode in Kolkata and the way it has been used as a political agency in Delhi. It is of utmost importance to see that steps are taken that the CBI�s integrity is maintained and it has functional autonomy for pursuing investigations.