‘States with lot to hide will fear CBI probe’
BHOPAL: Union finance minister Arun Jaitley launched a scathing attack against the West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh governments on Saturday for barring the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from probing corruption cases in their jurisdiction, saying no state could claim sovereignty when it comes to probing matters of corruption.
Jaitley referred to the Saradha Group chit fund scam and the Narada TV sting operation that showed several leaders of West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress accepting cash from a man purportedly representing a
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“Saradha and Narada in West Bengal can’t be wiped off by merely keeping CBI out of the state and Andhra Pradesh move is not motivated by any particular case but by the fear of what is likely to happen
ARUN JAITLEY, Union finance minister
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“Saradha and Narada in West Bengal can’t be wiped off by merely keeping CBI out of the state and Andhra Pradesh move is not motivated by any particular case but by the fear of what is likely to happen,” said Jaitley, who was in Bhopal to release the Bharatiya Janata Party’s vision document ahead of this month’s assembly election in Madhya Pradesh.
West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, the latter ruled by estranged BJP ally Telugu Desam Party (TDP), barred the CBI from conducting raids or investigating cases without their express consent, making the point that they doubt the independence of the country’s premier investigating agency.
The BJP’s political rivals have in the past accused the Centre of using federal agencies to harass them.
The Congress-led Punjab Government on Saturday scotched speculation around withdrawing the general consent to the CBI in the state and said there was no such move yet.
Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh said there was no such move and the decision in respect of the CBI consent in Congress-ruled states would be taken by party president Rahul Gandhi.
The Karnataka government rescinded the general consent to the Central Bureau of Investigation in 1992, under the Janata Dal (Secular) government, headed by then chief minister JH Patel. It has not been reinstated.
This situation continues till date, an official at the chief minister’s office confirmed. “Except for the illegal mining case, where the CBI was charged with investigating the case by the Supreme Court, the agency has to seek the state’s permission before taking up any case.” The state is ruled by an alliance of the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular).
Jaitley told journalists: “We have a federal structure in India. Under that federal structure, CBI was created initially for employees of the central government and then to investigate several kinds of serious cases in the states which were referred to it either by states or by courts.CBI can’t snatch any case.”
He said: “It’s only those who have a lot to hide (that) will take the step of saying ‘let CBI not come to my state.”’
In the backdrop of the restrictions clamped by the two state governments on the CBI, Jaitley asked how the CBI could now investigate cases related to central government establishments in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh and how it could probe corruption cases involving central government tax officials posted in the two states.