CBI filed a record 1,005 cases and preliminary enquires in 2025: Report

The agency had registered a total of 840 cases in 2024, 876 in 2023, 946 in 2022, 747 in 2021 and 676 in 2020, according to previous years’ CVC reports.

Published on: Aug 26, 2026, 08:32:00 IST

By Neeraj Chauhan, New Delhi

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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered 1,005 cases and preliminary enquiries (PEs) in 2025, the highest ever in a single year and nearly 48% more than 2020 when it filed 676 cases and enquiries, according to the latest annual report of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and agency data independently reviewed by HT.

“During the year 2025, 1,005 regular cases, PEs and Lokpal references were registered by CBI. Out of the 1,005 cases, 161 cases were taken up on the orders of the constitutional courts and 27 cases on the references received from the state governments and union territories,” stated the CVC’s 2025 annual report, seen by HT.

The agency had registered a total of 840 cases in 2024, 876 in 2023, 946 in 2022, 747 in 2021 and 676 in 2020, according to previous years’ CVC reports.

CBI officials, who requested anonymity, attributed the increase in numbers to a proactive approach by the federal agency, particularly in its core duties—trapping corrupt government servants while taking bribes and registering disproportionate assets (DA) cases.

“Other than special crimes, bank frauds, and other economic offences, a special focus for the past couple of years has been to target the corrupt officers, which is our core work. Subsequently, multiple cases have been registered to investigate digital arrest scams, human trafficking networks in south-east Asia and builders-bankers’ nexus to cheat homebuyers,” said an officer, who asked not to be named.

In 2025, the CVC report said, CBI laid 265 traps against government servants for detection of bribery cases. It also registered 81 cases to investigate possession of disproportionate assets by government servants.

Officials said that the trap and DA cases averaged around 100-150 till the last couple of years. It is also for the first time ever that CBI has registered 81 DA cases in a year.

Another area where CBI has performed well, according to CVC, is completing investigations in its cases. In 2025, the report says, CBI completed probes in 1064 cases, which consisted of 876 regular cases (RCs), 165 PEs and inquiry or status reports sent in 23 Lokpal references.

“At the end of year 2025, a total of 755 cases were pending, out of which 679 were regular cases, 63 preliminary inquiries and 13 Lokpal references. 274 regular cases were pending for more than one year and 39 preliminary enquiries were pending for more than 3 months at the end of 2025,” CVC says.

While the agency boasts of filing record cases in 2025, it still faces significant issues in completing its probes. The agency is expected to complete its probes within one year of registration of a case. But the CVC reports says that CBI’s 473 probes under the Prevention of Corruption Act are pending at the end of 2025. Out of these 473, 39 have been pending for more than five years.

CVC notes various reasons for tardiness in completing investigations such as - delay in obtaining responses to letters rogatory (LRs), time consumed in verification of documents or title deeds, etc., in disproportionate asset cases, delay in providing forensic reports by the forensic laboratories and reports by other experts, delay in granting prosecution sanction by the competent authorities, etc., and delay in providing of relevant records or documents by the authorities concerned.

The data reveals that CBI’s 521 requests in 201 cases for granting prosecution sanction under 19 (1) of PC Act, mandatory to file a charge sheet, was pending with 51 government departments in 2025.

Subsequently, CBI’s 72 requests involving 172 officers under section 17A of the PC Act - mandatory to launch a probe against a government servant - are pending with different organisations/government departments.

The CVC report further says that in 2025, CBI’s conviction rate was 71.71% compared to 69.14% in 2024. At the end of 2025, 11,510 court cases were pending under trial in various courts.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neeraj Chauhan
Neeraj Chauhan is a senior journalist with Hindustan Times and an investigative reporter specialising in national security, terrorism, organised crime, narcotics, corruption, financial crime and complex investigations. With over 21 years of experience across Hindustan Times, The Times of India, The Indian Express and The Pioneer, he has built deep expertise in India’s internal security and law-enforcement landscape. Neeraj has extensively covered India’s principal investigative, intelligence and security agencies, including the NIA, CBI, ED, IB, R&AW, MHA and other central security forces. His work has included deeply reported investigations into terrorism, terror financing, cross-border crime, narcotics trafficking, cybercrime, financial fraud and political and corporate corruption. He has reported on some of the most significant terror attacks and security developments in India over the past two decades, including the Delhi serial blasts, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the 2019 Pulwama terror attack and the recent Pahalgam attack. His reporting has also chronicled the rise and decline of the Indian Mujahideen, the activities and subsequent crackdown on the Popular Front of India (PFI), Islamist extremist networks, the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir, insurgencies in the Northeast and Maoist violence. Some of Neeraj’s major breaking stories are in Aryan Khan drug case, Sushant Singh Rajput suicide, interception of a 3,000-kg Afghan heroin consignment worth about ₹21,000 crore at Mundra port, Sri Lanka easter bombings, Aarushi-Hemraj murders in Noida, 2G scam, coal block allocation scam, AgustWestland VVIP chopper deal and major bank frauds and extradition cases involving Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya. His reporting is marked by an ability to cultivate sources, analyse confidential and complex documents, and follow investigations over several years—from the initial breakthrough to chargesheets, trials and international legal proceedings. He specialises in making complicated security and investigative developments accessible while examining their wider implications for governance and public policy. A Chevening South Asia Journalism Programme Fellow at the University of Westminster, Neeraj also spent time at the Financial Times as part of the fellowship. He was also a Robert Bosch Media Ambassadors India-Germany Fellow, studying at the University of Tübingen and working with Der Tagesspiegel in Berlin. He has previously taught investigative journalism and crime reporting as a guest faculty member at the Times School of Journalism. Over more than two decades, Neeraj has established himself as an authoritative voice on India’s national security and investigative landscape, with his reporting closely followed by officials, investigators, lawyers, policymakers and readers seeking insight into some of the country’s most complex and consequential developments.Read More

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