Legal experts slam ‘govt interference’

The myth that CBI is an autonomous probe agency has been busted with its director admitting to have shared draft status report on its investigation into the coalgate scam before submitting it to the Supreme Court. This has undermined the agency’s credibility as a fair investigator, say legal experts, reports Bhadra Sinha.

The myth that CBI is an autonomous probe agency has been busted with its director admitting to have shared draft status report on its investigation into the coalgate scam before submitting it to the Supreme Court. This has undermined the agency’s credibility as a fair investigator, say legal experts.

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Senior advocate Dushyant Dave said it was an extremely sad day for Indian judiciary.

“The law minister, Attorney General and Additional Solicitor General as also the high officials such as the CBI and joint secretaries have got together to undermine the investigation and interfere with SC proceedings,” he added.

CBI could not have shown the report, especially in light of serious allegations against the government including the Prime Minister’s Office, he said.

Former additional solicitor general Raju Ramachandran felt since the cat was out of the bag, time had come for SC to step in and unequivocally lay down guidelines to insulate the CBI. “In the absence of a legislation SC will be perfectly justified either on the lines of Vishaka and Prakash Singh to give clear directions for the CBI to not to share its investigation details with anyone,” he said.

Ramchandran said CBI’s investigation against political leaders in the past now smacks of influence. “They were all tainted and done at government’s behest,” he added.

According to Dave CBI had compromised itself long ago. Its probe against Mulayam Singh is a case in point. “When the government wanted CBI to go after Mulayam Singh Yadav, they came with affidavits against him. And when it wanted his support, CBI went slow on him.”