Maharashtra Interior Minister Anil Deshmukh revealed that the state government suspected a politically motivated move to hand over the TRP scam case to CBI and thus withdrew the blanket consent given to the central investigative agency through of an order on Wednesday. Deshmukh added that although the CBI is a professional investigative agency, questions are raised about its use for political purposes.
The Maharashtra government on Wednesday issued an order withdrawing its general consent for CBI to conduct investigations in the state.
“Section 6 of the Delhi Special Establishments Act empowers the state, making its consent mandatory to hand over any case to the IWC. By order issued in 1989, Maharashtra had given its general consent to allow the central agency to take over any case. We have withdrawn the same when issuing the order yesterday, ”Deshmukh told a news conference in Mumbai.
Deshmukh said the state government suspected the possibility of the PRT case being transferred to the CBI for political reasons.
“There is a growing buzz among the general public about the political use of the main central agency in recent times. The Honorable Supreme Court had also described CBI as a ‘caged parrot’ in the past. We have seen how some sensitive cases registered in Maharashtra were turned over to the central agencies. We anticipate a similar attempt on the TRP scam and therefore the order was issued. The Mumbai police are investigating the PRT case very efficiently and have also made some arrests. After the CBI registered an FIR on the TRP scam in Uttar Pradesh, there was a possibility that our investigation would be turned over to the central agency, ”he said.
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Deshmukh noted that some states such as Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Sikkim have also issued such orders making their consent mandatory before handing over any investigation to the CBI.
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In the recent past, the MVA government in Maharashtra and the BJP government in the Center were involved in a dispute over investigations into sensitive cases. Immediately after it took over, the MVA planned to establish a special investigation team to investigate Bhima Koregaon’s case of violence, which was being investigated by the Maharashtra police during the BJP rule in the state. However, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the case. Similarly, the case of the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput was handed over to the CBI despite opposition from the Maharashtra government.
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