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Braving charges, CBI to confront accused with evidence

Vinay Kumar

The agency is likely to further examine senior police officers charge-sheeted in the case

NEW DELHI: With the former Gujarat Minister of State for Home, Amit Shah, in judicial custody in the case of Sohrabuddin fake encounter and murder of his wife Kausarbi, the Central Bureau of Investigation is now focussing on sewing up the loose ends of its probe and defending itself as allegations over its “misuse” fly thick and fast.

The CBI will now further examine the senior police officials chargesheeted in the case as well as some high ranking police officers who have come under a cloud for their role in the case. After this, informed sources said, the CBI by next week will seek police custody of Mr. Shah and confront him with the statements of the police officers and other evidence gathered by the CBI during its probe.

A rattled Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, fuming over the arrest of Mr. Shah, considered close to Chief Minister Narendra Modi, is sure to keep the issue alive in Parliament, which begins its monsoon session on Monday.

A former Director of the CBI, who did not wish to be quoted, was of the view that Mr. Shah, being the Home Minister of a State, should have responded to the summons and appeared before the agency. He felt the BJP was “unfairly criticising” the CBI, which had a right to call anybody for further probe if it was in possession of some material facts.

These were summonses under Section 161 of the Cr.PC and were only a fact-finding exercise. “The Minister should have given his version and explanation, failing which the agency filed a chargesheet before court. Mr. Shah should have gracefully cooperated with the agency, which took up investigation on the directions of the Supreme Court. The court even rejected his anticipatory bail,” the former CBI chief said. He pointed out that even Chief Minister Narendra Modi had appeared earlier this year before the Supreme Court-appointed and monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT), which was probing the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat.

He recollected that it was the same BJP which appreciated the role of the CBI in cracking the case on the murder of the former Gujarat Home Minister, Haren Pandya, in 2003. The agency at that time faced almost similar allegations from Vithalbhai, father of Haren Pandya, who accused Mr. Modi of being behind the murder of his son. An embittered Vithalbhai even contested elections against BJP stalwart L.K. Advani and lost.

About seven years ago, the CBI faced a similar allegation by the Congress and others during the NDA regime, when they slammed the ruling coalition for “misusing the CBI” in getting conspiracy charges dropped against Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and others in the Babri Masjid demolition case.

In July 2003, the Opposition wanted a debate in the Rajya Sabha on the alleged “misuse of the CBI,” and Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee moved the motion in the House on the misuse of the CBI to subvert the process of law in the Babri Masjid demolition case.

CPI (M) leader in the Rajya Sabha Nilotpal Basu had pointed out that in the Babri Masjid demolition case, the “accused and the prosecution are one and the same” and hence there was a conflict of interest.

It was during the NDA regime that an acting CBI Director was not confirmed and transferred out in January 1999 because he dared to order raids on Reliance Industries Limited, and CBI sleuths reached the top floor apartment of RIL chief Dhirubhai Ambani.

However, in Gujarat, which was shaken by the anti-Muslim riots in 2002, the CBI investigated the Bilkis Bano case and took it to its logical conclusion. On another front, the agency is still grappling with some of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases. Clearly, everything is not right with the administration of the criminal justice system and those from the political class and those with deep pockets manage to subvert the system and escape the process of law.

A report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee way back in 2000 wanted the government to “take measures to infuse professionalism in the working of the CBI.”

“If it is impartial and independent, the CBI will be stronger than the FBI. If not, it can be worse than Delhi Police,” a former Union Minister, who was also a member of the Standing Committee on Home Affairs, remarked then. Over the past decade, the image and reputation of the CBI as an independent and impartial investigating agency has come under a shadow. In cases with political ramifications, the CBI has faltered and often taken up the probe on the directions of the court. And where it has shown courage, like in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh-Kausarbi murder case, its motives are sought to be questioned by the BJP as its Gujarat leaders have started to feel the heat of the probe.

Speaking privately, serving and retired CBI officials admit that political bosses had asked it to take up cases that had little substance. They cited the Jain Hawala case, where the agency implicated a number of politicians.

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