State government not giving permission to CBI to investigate and prosecute

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: CBI is fated to be just an onlooker in many cases including the gold smuggling case. The state government has withdrawn the permission to CBI to investigate on its own initiative and this has deprived the agency of its power to investigate and register case on its own. The government has rejected more than ten requests given by CBI.

The government also did not give permission to prosecute the accused in cases like national highway corruption case involving Rs.102 crores and also the Rs.500 crores corruption in an import case. The government is trying to limit the CBI just like what it did to the Vigilance.

The CBI is not able to investigate the bank scams, the gold smuggling cases involving customs officials, the corruption cases involving state and central officials. The government’s tactic is to hide the requests of the CBI.

The government has not given permission for trial in cases taken earlier and so the chargesheet is submitted without charging the anti-corruption law. This weakens the case and helps the accused.

The CBI needs the permission of the state government to investigate cases in that state. Since 2017, general permission was given to the agency to investigate and to register case. After a case was registered in the Life Mission corruption case, the permission was withdrawn by the Cabinet in November 2020. With this the CBI had to take separate permission from the state government for each case.

Meanwhile, the government gave permission to CBI to investigate the Solar case, in which opposition leaders are involved. The central government can appoint CBI to investigate a case only with the permission of the state government.