The Hindu : Liberhan panel deprived of crucial investigative staff

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 22, 2004

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National

Liberhan panel deprived of crucial investigative staff

By Praveen Swami

NEW DELHI, JAN. 21. Even as the Justice M.S. Liberhan Commission battles a March 31 deadline to submit its report, it is finding itself bereft of its crucial investigative staff.

An investigation by The Hindu found that the Commission has been stripped of the services of CBI personnel assigned to it in 1993. The CBI personnel assigned to the Commission have helped sift through the mass of evidence gathered by Mr. Justice Liberhan, and to serve summons to witnesses over the heads of obstructive State police forces. The CBI now claims it cannot spare personnel for the Commission, which is investigating the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The Cabinet Secretariat has accepted the CBI position.

CBI personnel familiar with the organisation's criminal investigation of the Babri Masjid demolition were made available to the Liberhan Commission . The Superintendent of Police, S.R. Agrawal, supervised a team made up of the Deputy Additional Superintendent of Police, T.P. Jha, Inspectors Munshi Ram and Babu Lal, two head constables and two constables. Mr. Agrawal retired in June 2001, but stayed on at the Commission for a year, working as an independent consultant. At the end of this time, Mr. Agrawal was replaced as the head of the CBI investigators on the Commission's staff by Mr. Jha.

Then, in June last year, Mr. Jha was transferred to the CBI's Kolkata office. Inspectors Munshi Ram and Babu Lal, meanwhile, also retired. The Liberhan Commission was now left with no skilled investigators. On July 25, 2003, S.K. Pachauri, Secretary of the Commission, wrote to the Government of India asking for replacements. "The work of the Commission," Mr. Pachauri's letter states, "is at a very advanced stage. Final arguments have recently commenced and the presence of a senior-level officer... is essential at this juncture."

It took the Cabinet Secretariat almost two months just to forward the Commission's request to the CBI. On September 22, a Joint Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, Anup Mukerji, wrote to the former CBI Director, P.C. Sharma, asking that "at least two officers of the CBI, one of the rank of SP/DSP and another in the rank of Inspector, may kindly be deputed to assist the Commission." Later, on October 27, 2003, Mr. Mukerji let the Commission know that "the CBI has stated that due to an acute shortage of officers, it is not in a position to spare any officer."

Mr. Pachauri responded with a request that this decision be reviewed. He again asked for "at least two officers of the CBI, i.e., one of the rank of SP/Dy. SP and another rank of the Inspector [sic.] who are well acquainted with the matter." Although Mr. Pachauri requested "an early reply," the Cabinet Secretariat again took its time. The request was passed on by Mr. Mukerji to the CBI only on December 15. The new CBI Director, U.S. Dutt, rejected this fresh request just two days later.

Mr. Dutt's letter notes that the Liberhan Commission request had "again been reviewed by the competent authority." It does not say who this "competent authority" was. Section 5A of the Commission of Inquiry Act, however, makes it clear that the CBI has no power to review such requests. "The Commission may," Section 5A states, "for the purpose of conducting any investigation pertaining to the inquiry utilise the services... of any officer or investigation agency with the concurrence of the Central Government."

Even as the CBI claimed that it had no personnel, it had returned at least one key officer associated with the Babri Masjid case, to the State cadre. The Inspector-General of Police, Radha Vinod Raju, was relieved and sent to Jammu and Kashmir as the State's Vigilance Commissioner last year. Mr. Raju had only just joined the CBI, and should have served a minimum seven-year tenure. The Cabinet Secretariat overruled the CBI protests and sent him back. Mr. Pachauri's letter asking for additional CBI personnel was written two days before the Liberhan Commission summoned the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Kalyan Singh, to appear before it. The decision to summon Mr. Singh was made after he charged the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, with having played a role in the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The Liberhan Commission's problems, a senior Government source said, may be a consequence of the Bharatiya Janata Party's anger at the course of action it took.

Several BJP leaders have privately complained that the Commission was taking too long to complete its work. Its most recent extension gives it just three months, rather than the six which is customarily granted.

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