The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is India’s leading investigative agency, at all times busy investigating, making headlines and taking place on television, many high profile corruption cases in the country.
However, the CBI itself often becomes a message. Sometimes the CBI is accused of being a “political tool” and other of its top officers have gaiters in not very private ways. A curious case is when the CBI has to investigate its own officials who are facing corruption allegations.
India Today filed a Right to Information (RTI) request with the leading investigative body to find out how many cases have been filed against CBI officials related to corruption allegations over the past 10 years, and how many have actually been convicted of these allegations.
The CBI responded that the agency had filed 60 cases against its officers, including seven Indian Police Service (IPS) officers who were deputed to serve the agency.
The CBI said only four of its officers have been convicted in 60 cases it has investigated against them over the past 10 years. The CBI made no specific mention of how many of its officers were booked or investigated in these corruption cases.
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A comparison with the overall conviction rate in the cases examined by the CBI could provide a better perspective to understand the response to the RTI query. According to the Central Vigilance Commission’s (CVC) annual report for 2019, the overall conviction rate in the cases examined by the CBI was 69.19 percent. The conviction rate in cases where the CBI investigates its own officials is definitely miserably low.
There is more. In July 2019, the government informed the Rajya Sabha that 36 CBI officials had faced corruption allegations over the past three years. It said “[D]In the years from 2016 to May 31, 2019, 10 preliminary investigations and 20 regular cases were registered against 36 CBI officials and others based on complaints and information developed by the CBI itself. “
Now back to the RTI response we received. According to the CBI’s response to us, the agency filed or investigated 23 cases against its officials for alleged corruption in the four years between 2016 and 2019.
While the government said that 30 cases, including preliminary investigations, had been conducted by the CBI against its own officials by May 31, 2019, the CBI’s RTI response cut the number of cases it investigated to 23 for the remaining seven months of the CBI will be covered in 2019.
This mismatch remains unresolved.
In our RTI inquiry, we also asked for the names of the IPS officers convicted with details of the conviction, the officers who investigated these cases and the names of the other agencies, if any, involved in the investigation of these cases were involved.
In response, the CBI said, “Certain information sought is available in an escrow relationship and disclosure of such information would not result in disclosure of the same to the greater public interest, which would entail the provision of US 8 (1) (e) ) of the RTI Act. 2005. ”
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