Several politicians, their aides, and bureaucrats have been under the radar of the country’s premier anti-corruption agency the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The actions by the agency against some political leaders have also drawn criticism for the Centre for “misuse” of central agencies to target political adversaries. The matter also reached the doors of the Supreme Court, but was junked.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Central Bureau of Investigation, recently remarked, “The main responsibility of the CBI is to make the country corruption free.” The CBI was established by a resolution of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India dated April 1, 1963.
However, inordinate delays in some cases have brought the government and the agency itself under the scanner. In its report submitted in Parliament in March 2022, a parliamentary committee flagged the high pendency of cases with the CBI and said cases cannot linger on for decades without a definite closure. Asserting that justice delayed is justice denied, the panel asked the CBI to prepare a roadmap for the disposal of pending cases. According to a reply furnished by the CBI to the panel in January last year, 1,025 cases were pending investigation. As many as 66 of them for more than five years.
As elections approach, cases under the CBI radar are bound to fall under increased scrutiny. From Delhi excise policy to land-for-jobs cases, there are several high-profile matters that the CBI is investigating but is yet to make substantial headway in.
Here’s a look at 5 high-profile cases pending before the CBI:
Manish Sisodia in Delhi excise policy case
The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government came under the CBI scanner on July 31, 2022, over the Excise Policy 2021-22 it introduced in November 2021. A month later, on August 17, the CBI registered a case in connection with alleged irregularities in the implementation and formulation of the policy against 15 accused, including former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. Sisodia and three other AAP members’ residences were raided by the CBI on August 19.
On November 25, 2022, the CBI had filed its first chargesheet against seven accused in the case. However, Sisodia’s name was not in the list.
The CBI’s FIR stated, “Manish Sisodia, Deputy CM; Arava Gopi Krishna, then Commissioner (Excise); Anand Tiwari, then Deputy Commissioner (Excise); and Pankaj Bhatnagar, Assistant Commissioner (Excise) were instrumental in recommending and taking decisions pertaining to excise policy for the year 2021-22 without the approval of competent authority with an intention to extend undue favours to the licensee post tender”.
The CBI summoned Sisodia on February 18, who asked to defer it owing to Delhi Budget preparations. On February 26, Sisodia was arrested after several hours of questioning. “He gave evasive replies and did not cooperate the investigation despite being confronted with evidence to the contrary. Therefore, he has been arrested,” a CBI statement read.
The case now hangs in the court, and as of the latest in the case, the Delhi High Court has sought a response from the federal probe agency on the former Delhi deputy CM’s bail plea in the excise policy case. The matter is set to be heard on April 20.
Lalu Yadav and family in land-for-jobs case
In May 2022, the CBI began interrogating a multi-crore “scam” involving the exchange of land for jobs in the Indian Railways, involving former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, his son and the incumbent Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, and his other family members.
The federal probe agency, in its FIR, alleged that between 2004 and 2009, when Lalu was the Railways minister, as many as 12 people from Patna were appointed to Group D posts in the Railways. In exchange for the jobs, his family got seven plots of land allegedly from those 12 people in the city as well as elsewhere for a pittance. The CBI estimated that Lalu Prasad’s family acquired over 1 lakh sq ft of land for Rs 26 lakh while the circle rate at the time puts the land’s cumulative value at more than Rs 4.39 crore.
The CBI named 16 people as accused in the case, including, Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi, and his daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav, besides the 12 people who got jobs in the Railway zones of Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur and Hajipur.
In the chargesheet filed by the CBI in October last year, against Lalu, and 15 others, mentioned that “irregular/ illegal appointments of candidates were made in Central Railways, violating the norms, guidelines and procedure of railways”.
The CBI charged the accused under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc.), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 (using a forged document as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
A close aide of Lalu, Bhola Yadav, was arrested in July last year, by the CBI. The accused was an officer on special duty (OSD) to Lalu Prasad.
Anubrata Mondal in cattle smuggling case
The CBI registered a case on September 21, 2020 against four accused including Satish Kumar, who was the Commandant of the BSF’s 36 Battalion in Malda during the period December 19, 2015 to April 22, 2017, in the West Bengal cattle smuggling racket.
On August 11, 2022, Anubrata Mondal, Trinamool Congress heavyweight and one of the most trusted aides of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was arrested by CBI. He was named in the CBI’s fourth charge sheet filed at the Asansol court on October 7.
The CBI FIR alleged that during Kumar’s tenure, the BSF seized more than 20,000 heads of cattle before they could be transported across the border, but the vehicles carrying these animals were not seized, and the persons involved in the illegal trade were not apprehended. Others named in the FIR were alleged cattle smugglers Md Enamul Haque, the alleged kingpin of the racket, Anarul Sheikh, and Md Golam Mustafa.
The accused were charged under IPC Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust), and 420 (cheating), and various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The CBI alleged that Mondal is directly involved in the case as he has been in touch with the main accused, Enamul Haque, through his bodyguard Saigal Hossain. The federal probe agency further alleged that Saigal Hossain had been collecting money that was part of the proceeds of crime, in the name of Anubrata Mondal.
Meanwhile, the CBI on April 6 this year conducted raids at the residences of three Customs Department officials at various places in the city and in districts in Kolkata in connection with the cattle smuggling case.
D K Shivakumar in disproportionate assets case
The CBI registered a case of disproportionate assets against now Karnataka Congress chief D K Shivakumar in October 2020, after the state gave consent to investigate the matter.
However, it all began in 2017 when the Income Tax Department conducted a raid against Shivakumar. The ED took over the probe based on information provided by the IT department, and subsequently, the CBI took over the investigation, based on ED’s inputs, after it sought sanction from the state government to file an FIR against him.
The CBI filed the FIR on October 3, 2020, and it started its proceedings under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The CBI had alleged between April 1, 2013, and April 30, 2018, Shivakumar and his family members were in possession of around Rs 74.8 crore in disproportionate assets which he has failed to explain with proper documents.
Earlier, the Karnataka High Court had extended the stay on proceedings against State Congress president D K Shivakumar in the CBI’s disproportionate assets case till April 13.
Kerala govt’s Life Mission project
The CBI registered an FIR into the Kerala state government’s flagship project, the Livelihood Inclusion and Financial Empowerment (LIFE) Mission project alleging that the project was funded by a foreign entity in violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). The project was envisioned to provide low-cost houses to the poor.
Under the project, the UAE Red Crescent, which is affiliated to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, agreed to provide 10 million UAE dirhams for constructing housing units to the flood victims, and a health centre. For this, a Memorandum of Understanding was entered into on July 11, 2019, between LIFE Mission officials and the representatives of Red Crescent, in presence of CM Vijayan, and officials of the UAE Consulate, reported The Indian Express.
As it ran into a controversy, Congress MLA Anil Aikkara lodged a complaint based on which CBI registered a case. He claimed that only six people in the area had lost dwellings in the floods and they had been rehabilitated before this scheme was launched.
Meanwhile, the Kerala government had approached the Supreme Court seeking a stay against the CBI probe. But, in February 2022, the apex court allowed the CBI to continue the probe.
Although the CBI has not made any arrests in the case, the Enforcement Directorate on February 15 arrested M Sivasankar, former principal secretary to Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, from Kochi in connection with its money laundering probe into the state government’s Life Mission project.