Withdrawal of general consent has hit work: CBI

NEW DELHI: Terming the decision of some states to withdraw general consent for CBI probe a major bottleneck hampering its functioning, CBI director

Subodh Jaiswal

informed the Supreme Court that

West Bengal

, Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand,

Chhattisgarh

and Mizoram have withdrawn consent, forcing the agency to approach them on a case-to-case basis. Such a process is “time-consuming and at times may be detrimental to timely and prompt investigation”, the agency director said.

The director said the eight states had consented in less than 18% of 150 requests made by the agency. Some of the cases denied involved high financial stakes.

CBI is governed by the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946 and as per the law, it requires the consent of the state government to conduct investigation in its territorial jurisdiction. The general consent previously granted to DSPE (CBI) under section 6 of the DSPE Act has been withdrawn by these states.

“Requests in approximately 78% cases were pending, which mainly pertained to bank frauds of high magnitude impacting the economy of the country. The delay caused in taking up cases by CBI due to any of the reasons mentioned above, at times, leads to destruction or dissipation of evidence. This is detrimental not only for the investigation by the CBI but also for subsequent prosecution of cases,” the affidavit filed by the CBI said.