Infighting within CBI

Often when a major crime or misdeed is committed, victims and interested parties seek a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation. But the country’s premier investigation agency has not covered itself with glory, what with botched investigations yielding a poor conviction rate, along with persistent allegations of being misused by political masters. It was a low point indeed when CBI was ordered by the Supreme Court to probe its own former director Ranjit Sinha’s role in the coal block allocation scam. Last year, the CBI registered graft cases against its two former directors — AP Singh for alleged nexus with notorious money launderer Moin Qureshi and Ranjit Sinha for allegedly trying to scuttle the coal scam probe. The fireworks are continuing this year with CBI filing a bribery case against its Number 2, special director Rakesh Asthana, on the basis of a complaint by a Hyderabad-based businessman with links to Moin Qureshi that he had to cough up a Rs 2 crore bribe to Mr Asthana. In turn, Mr Asthana has complained to the government that the “false FIR” lodged against him is the handiwork of CBI director Alok Verma in cahoots with top officials of CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED). The Rs 2 crore bribe was paid to the CBI director, Mr Asthana has alleged. Now that this internal conflict is well and truly out in the open, it is high time to clean up CBI. The revelations threaten to damage its credibility irreversibly, which will seriously impair the country’s ability to investigate the big crime.