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Citing coal scam, CVC now strengthens grip on CBI

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has decided to significantly enhance its supervision of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in light of recent developments in the Supreme Court in coal scam where the decision of CBI to close certain inquiries was referred to CVC for further vetting.

The CVC has written to CBI Director Anil Sinha and the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on Thursday specifying a new mechanism for its superintendence over the CBI citing highly sensitive cases being probed by the CBI. "CVC may select cases of grave or serious nature in addition to present category of important and long pending cases and conduct an in-depth review of the progress of investigation at every quarter," the CVC letter dated January 29, which ET has accessed, says.

It has also specified that CBI, by the 7th of every month, will furnish to CVC details on all Preliminary Enquiries (PE) and Registered cases (RC) under probe with the agency -- including how many such cases have been closed, charged and the pendency levels of all such cases. Significantly, CVC has also said in its letter that it wants to know from CBI every month the "gist of allegations and the reasons" for closure of any PE's or RC's by the CBI and specify which CBI officer had approved the closure move.

The CVC has also said that it plans to hold review meetings with the Director, CBI and CBI officers for such review at any interval rather than a monthly review which is done presently. "The new mechanism will come into effect from the month of January, 2015," the CVC letter to the CBI has specified.

CVC has said that the Coal scam developments have been a trigger for its latest move. "The issue of enhancing the effectiveness of exercise of superintendence over CBI has been engaging the attention of the CVC for some time. The CVC is of the view that with increase in highly sensitive cases in the recent past, and especially in view of the directions of SC to CBI to submit closure reports of PE's registered in Coal Block allocation matters to CVC for examination/scrutiny and submission to SC, a need has now arisen to revisit the mechanism evolved by CVC to exercise superintendence over CBI as envisaged under Section 8 of CVC Act," the CVC letter has said.

CVC has further specified in its letter that the functional superintendence of CBI as far as enquiries and investigations in corruption cases will be exercised by CVC while the superintendence exercised by government "is only for logistical or administrative support". CVC has also asked CBI to amend its Crime Module if necessary to generate and provide data on PE and RC's as required by the CVC under the new mechanism.

Source: The Economic Times