Outlook: New Delhi: Friday, March 20, 2015.
Citing
political and government interference in the functioning of CBI, senior lawyer
Prashant Bhushan today said greater transparency and an overseeing authority
will ensure its independence.
He expressed
serious concern over recent unofficial meetings between the then CBI Director R
K Sinha and some accused being probed by the agency and advocated that it is
brought under the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
"Unfortunately,
there is no institutional mechanism for investigating corruption in CBI
particularly corruption at the top level of CBI. This is the problem that we
are facing. The case of the former CBI Director where we had made a complaint
to CVC but unfortunately no action was taken because nobody knew what to do.
"Who
will investigate a former and immediate Director of CBI. That is why the case
of appointing Special Investigation Team in the whole matter is pending in the
Supreme Court and the SC is considering that," he said during a book
launch function here.
Bhushan said
people have been reading about the entry register of the previous CBI Director,
which shows he was meeting a large number of the accused persons, being
investigated by CBI, multiple times, some times late at night without the
presence of the investigating officer.
"These
were all unofficial meetings at his residence which in itself is a cause of
serious concern," he said.
Bhushan, an
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, avoided queries on his reported differences with
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
He was
speaking during the launch of a book 'CBI Insider Speaks--Birlas to Sheila
Dikshit' written by Shantonu Sen, former Joint Director of CBI.
Bhushan
questioned exemption from providing information given to CBI under the RTI Act.
"CBI was
also one kind of institutions when the Act came which was under the purview of
the RTI Act. Unfortunately, recently the government has notified it as an exempted
organisation. Now you can only seek information only relating to human rights
violation and corruption.
"From
CBI, as a result, routine RTI requests are now being stonewalled by CBI and
therefore it has become even more difficult to get information out about the
functioning of CBI," he said.
The
transparency of CBI "is more or less erased" because of exemption
given to it under the RTI Act and "we have to rely on accounts written by
Sen in order to get inside information about the agency or on occasionally
leaks form whistleblowers, the Supreme Court lawyer said.
Bhushan, who
has been contesting many corruption cases mostly on the basis of Public
Interest Litigation filed by him in the Supreme Court involving corporates and
bureaucrats, said the power of transfer, promotion and take disciplinary action
against CBI officers vests with the government and this is the main instrument
for political interference.
"That is
why we see in a large number of cases politically powerful and so-called
captains of the industries, powerful corporates are exempted from the purview
of CBI investigation and afterwards from CBI chargesheet," he said.
Bhushan
alleged weak and pliable people are appointed as CBI Directors so that there is
no accountability. "Career officers in CBI are now a dying breed at least
at the senior level. We now see mostly people coming on deputation from
different cadres of the IPS. That is one of the reasons for the loss of
independence of CBI," he said.
Bhushan said
Lokpal is the right kind of authority which should exercise complete
administrative control over the CBI.
"There
is no reason why every investigation should not be put out in public domain
immediately after the investigation is over. Once the investigation is over,
the entire case diary should be put out in public domain and the people can see
whether investigation is fully done or properly done etc," he said.
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