The Central Surveillance Commission (CVC) has stated that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been slow to investigate certain cases due to various reasons, including work overload, delay in obtaining response to letters rogatory (LR) sent to several countries in search of information. , government departments do not deliver the relevant records and penalize the agency, delay in obtaining forensic reports from laboratories, among other reasons.
Other reasons cited by the apex watchdog for the IWC investigations stalling for years include manpower shortages, time spent scrutinizing voluminous economic crime records, bank fraud cases, and time The considerable amount that officers spend locating and questioning witnesses living in distant locations.
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According to CVC’s annual report, which was released on Sunday, the investigation was pending in 744 CBI cases for more than a year at the end of December 2019, of which 678 were related to the Prevention of Corruption Act (PC ).
Around 25 CBI corruption investigations were found to be pending beyond five years. Overall, there were a total of 1,239 pending investigations and inquiries at CBI as of December of last year. The data reveals that the CBI recorded a total of 608 FIRs and 102 Preliminary Consultations (PE) in 2019.
Another worrying trend for the CBI, as shown in CVC’s annual report, concerns the handling of its cases in court. As of December 2019, the massive 6,226 PC Law cases investigated by the IWC were pending trial in various courts across the country, some for more than 20 years. When it comes to appeals and reviews filed by agencies and defendants in various higher courts, the Supreme Court and additional session courts are considered; A staggering 11,380 appeals / reviews are pending in court, CVC data suggests.
CVC says: “The Commission is concerned about the slow progress in the resolution of the large number of cases pending trial in different courts over long periods, sometimes for more than twenty years. Such excessive delays in the investigation defeat the very purpose of an efficient surveillance administration and are an impediment to the fight against corruption ”.
The CBI spokesperson was not available for comment. However, an official, requesting anonymity, said that “many of the high profile white collar criminals use their money to delay cases in court.”
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Court delays, the CVC adds, occur due to a limited number of hearings, unavailability of witnesses, delaying tactics adopted by defendants when submitting requests to transfer cases from one court to another in defiance of legality. of the investigation by CBI. and suspension of the court and insufficient staffing of the prosecution due to vacancies.
In discussing the nature of the cases received against government officials, the CVC says that a large number of complaints received against public servants are “frivolous, vague, unspecific, related to procedural lapses or administrative violations.”
Furthermore, a significant number of reports seeking investigation against officials from central ministries and departments are “anonymous”, have wild or unverifiable allegations, and in some cases the intention of the complainant is simply to harass someone rather than report corrupt activity. As a general policy, the CVC has not received anonymous complaints since October 2018 and it is only recommended to investigate those complaints that have a clear surveillance angle.
According to the CVC’s annual report for 2019, of a total of 35,649 complaints against public servants, almost 20 percent (7,425) were vague while 19 percent (6,975) were anonymous in nature.
“In many complaints, the allegations were found to be vague or impossible to verify. The Commission received a large number of complaints against public servants who work in state governments and other organizations that are not under the Commission’s jurisdiction or that are administrative in nature, ”says the CVC report reviewed by HT.
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