Commentary/Rajiv Shukla

The CBI needs to put in more efforts before filing chargesheets

The Central Bureau of Investigation's credibility is at stake. During the last session of Parliament, all political parties were unified about only one thing. And that was to lambast the CBI.

Everybody, from members of the ruling party like Sharad Yadav to Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, criticised the Bureau's role. Yadav even went to the extent of saying that the it was running the affairs of the country while the prime minister's office remained a mute spectator. With the kind of clout which the CBI commands today, even the prime minister does not have any say in national affairs, he claimed.

The MPs also criticised the press -- especially the electronic media -- for over-projecting the Bureau's role. A R Antulay suggested that a separate agency should be created to deal with public servants.

More than the CBI as a body, it was its chief Joginder Singh who caught the cutting edge of the MPs's tongues. Most of them criticised his style of functioning as well as his knack to wrangle prime television time everyday -- Singh, as a secretary to the government commented at a dinner at Law Minister Ramakant Khalap's home, appears more on television than the prime minister himself!

Why is the CBI being attacked today? Despite a grave lack of resources, it has done excellently on cases like the Bombay blasts case, the arms dropping in Purulia case and the urea scam. There are no doubts about that.

But there are some cases in which the sleuths have performed pathetically. There could be various reasons for this -- political pressures, judicial directives... things which the officials cannot reveal. But whatever, the CBI needs to put in more efforts before filing chargesheets.

Today, in many cases the CBI chargesheets are falling flat because of lack of evidence. In the hawala case, the chargesheets are being rejected at the preliminary hearing stage itself. It is supposed to be a hawala scandal but, to date, no hawala angle has been discovered. The judges do not even find the CBI charges satisfactory to order trials. This is a ridiculous situation, reflecting badly on former CBI director Vijay Rama Rao. It looks like he prepared these under political motivation.

In the Bofors case, Rajiv Gandhi's name is being dragged in the mud at a point of time when he is no more. The law of the land does not permit chargesheeting a person who is not alive. Besides, there is no evidence that Rajiv or members of his family took any money in the deal. Everybody is laughing at the CBI's decision to chargesheet Gopi Aurora, who is not only innocent in this case, but also a bureaucrat of high integrity. He is being accused of keeping some file in his office for more than a month, which is a routine thing in government offices. No ulterior motive was involved in his action.

Similarly, former Cricket Control Board president Indrajit Singh Bindra is being accused of flouting rules to acquire land for a stadium. Bindra did not do it to build his home. He created an asset, not only for Punjab but for the whole nation -- in the shape of the Mohali stadium. He should be rewarded for such an excellent job. Instead, what he gets is a chargesheet from the CBI.

Captain Satish Sharma, the former minister of state for petroleum, is being chargesheeted for using his discretionary quota in allocating petrol pumps. If there is such a quota as that what is wrong in using it, particularly when even his enemies concede he has not taken any money?

Now we come to another of the CBI's futile exercises -- the St Kitts case. Frankly, I think it is a waste of time and money as people are least bothered about it. Even V P Singh is no longer interested in it. Yet, we are going ahead with it.

Tell us what you think of this column