Rao PMO furious, said going after Anderson would hit FDI: Ex-CBI chief

At a time when the Central Bureau of Investigation is in overdrive, comes more testimony of how its bosses are constantly asked to do the bidding of the Government of the day.

In his forthcoming memoirs Top Cop Recalls (Manas Publications), former CBI Director S K Dutta has listed several instances of what he calls blatant interference in handling politically sensitive cases by different governments.

Most revealing is Dutta’s account of instructions he says he received on the extradition case against Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) between 1992 and 1993, when he was Director. Incidentally, barely months ago, the circumstances in which Anderson was let off on bail was the subject of an attack on the CBI and the UPA Government by the Opposition.

Dutta writes: “As Director, I was called to meet the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister (the late A N Verma, who was Principal Secretary in P V Narasimha Rao’s tenure). He was almost furious and wanted to know why the CBI was proceeding against Anderson, an accused of the Bhopal Gas leak case. He said that by doing so we were preventing foreign investment...I argued that the case was in court and we can do nothing. I was not sure whether he (A N Verma) was acting on his own own or due to political pressure. On return to office I did nothing as I was not hankering after post-retirement assignments or violating rule and law.”

On another occasion in 1990, Dutta claims, he and the then CBI Director, Rajender Shekhar, decided they would jointly quit their jobs if there was interference over handling of the Syed Modi murder case — in which politician Sanjay Singh was one of the accused. Singh was later discharged.

Dutta writes: “One day, I received a telephone call from from an officer close to the Cabinet Secretary that hearing for framing of the charge in the case was being preponed from the day already fixed for hearing and I should agree to it and not oppose the move. I said that it was not possible as our special counsel was in Mumbai and it was not possible for him to come earlier as there was no time for that....next thing that came to my notice was that the Director was told to change our special counsel...”

The subsequent narration of events shows how top echelons of the CBI joined hands to resist interference in the Modi murder case but the Government made a more blatant move.

According to Dutta: “He (CBI Director) told me that the Government wanted to know whether the Director would change the counsel. He wanted my views. I told him it was not possible in principle. He agreed with me. He asked me if I was prepared to put in my papers if the counsel was changed. I said ‘yes.’ He felt happy, as he too had decided to do so...Next thing that happened was something unheard of. All of a sudden, in the name of economy, the Government issued an order cancelling the appointments of all special counsels engaged by various departments to deal with their court cases. Therefore, our special counsel’s appointment was automatically terminated. All were surprised, but did not know the real reason.”

The same year, Dutta claims, the Government tried its best to protect Congress leader Sajjan Kumar who was implicated in the 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases. Investigations in the case were referred to the CBI in 1991 during the V P Singh regime.

“The Delhi Police were informed of the proposed raid in advance,” Dutta writes. “From nowhere, hundreds of supporters of Sajjan Kumar surrounded his residence and the DIG was under threat to his life. He could have been lynched. The DIG was ultimately rescued by the local police.”

Dutta adds: “The case was referred to the Home Ministry which sent the file to the Delhi Government in 1991 as (the) Lt Governor was required to issue the sanction. The CBI kept on reminding the MHA for issuance of sanction almost on a monthly basis. The sanction was received in 1994 after change of regime in Delhi Government. By then I had retired in 1993.”

The author quotes Julio Ribeiro’s Bullet for Bullet to say that it explains “why the Lt Governor was not issuing the sanction for Sajjan Kumar for years.” Ribeiro, Dutta writes, described Sajjan Kumar as “a loyalist committed to the Gandhi family.”



The aabove is from the Indian Express.
This is what I have been saying all along, the CBI is the pet poodle of the Central government to do its bidding.
The practice goes on even with the change of government.
The first UPA government went light on Lalu Yadav and Shibu Soren since they were government ministers.
The second UPA government went light on Raja, Mulayam Singh and Mayawati when it suited them.
If Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and the pack of Congress leaders who have been crying hoarse on corruption, they should make the CBI truly independent like the FBI and not issue instructions to them.
It should file fast track court cases against corrupt people like the Bihar government is doing.
Otherwise the zero tolerance against corruption will sound just as hollow as the other zero tolerances Manmohan Singh proclaimed.