As per a report published in The Indian Express today, the Central Bureau of Investigation has written a letter to the Central Vigilance Commission saying that despite its repeated formal communications, names of such officers were being considered for induction in the CBI who “were under examination by the CBI as suspects/ accused in criminal cases under investigation with the Bureau”.
The letter also states that the second senior most officer in the CBI- Rakesh Asthana, is himself “under (the) scanner” in several cases and “cannot be consulted for inducting officers into CBI”.
What Now?
The report must have sent tremors across the establishment.
It would only be normal for the Prime Minister issue a clarification.
In 2013, when the then Law Minister Ashwini Kumar was accused of interfering with the CBI he was forced to resign even though he denied the allegation. Perhaps some Modi Minister will resign now?
Political observers believe that over the next few days the Hindu-Muslim dog whistles would probably get shriller.
In 2013, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had tweeted:
CBI has become Congress Bureau of Investigation.Nation has no faith in it.I tell the Centre don’t show us fear of CBI http://t.co/XtKgM1Mdg4
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 24, 2013
One wonders what acronym he has in mind for it now.