By Sumit Saxena
New Delhi, April 9 (IANS) Nearly 10 years ago, a packed courtroom sat in gripping silence as a Supreme Court judge criticised the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), terming it as a “caged parrot”.
A year ago, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju had tweeted that CBI is no more a “caged parrot”, but is truly performing its duty as India’s top criminal investigating agency.
The elite investigating agency — which has seen countless highs and lows since its inception — completed 60 years earlier this month, and also registered a high conviction rate, which has gone up to 74.59 per cent in 2022 from 68 per cent in 2018.
However, senior advocate and former Additional Solicitor General, Sidharth Luthra, feels that much lies beyond these numbers, as how many convictions are being sustained by the appellate courts or the Supreme Court determine the CBI’s actual conviction rate, and the probe agency should focus on capacity building at the lowest level to tackle white collar crimes.
Speaking to IANS, Luthra said that about 10 years ago, there were 80-plus special courts for corruption cases or CBI cases all over the country and the impact of that has been felt over the last decade, as a result of which conviction rates are bound to go up.
He said what needs to be seen is how many of these convictions are being sustained by the appellate courts or the Supreme Court, as that determines the CBI’s actual conviction rate.
“While there is anecdotal evidence to see, there is also factual evidence. Also, the number of convictions by the trial courts are far higher. But whether they are going to be sustained at an appellate stage or in the Supreme Court at a special leave appeal and in the second appeal stage is the actual number which will determine the rate of conviction,” Luthra said.
In view of the number of CBI courts in the country, he said there will be more trials and decisions, however, the question is finally how many are convicted.
On April 6, the Rajya Sabha was informed that the conviction rate of the CBI has gone up to 74.59 per cent in 2022 from 68 per cent in 2018.
Union Minister of State for Personnel, Jitendra Singh, said in a written reply that CBI’s conviction rate was at 68 per cent in 2018, 69.19 per cent in 2019, 69.83 per cent in 2020, 67.56 per cent in 2021, and 74.59 per cent in 2022.
Luthra said the CBI is focused on corruption cases, but please appreciate that the agency can only investigate those cases which come within its purview, where states have given their consent — general consent or specific consent — and there are anti-corruption bureaus or branches in states, which also prosecute corruption cases.
“I think we look at the state police and the CBI for corruption cases. We would have to see overall — how many FIRs have been registered and how many of them culminated in chargesheet, and how many land up finally in a case of prosecution, and then how many will land up in convictions or acquittals,” Luthra said.
Nine states — Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana and West Bengal — have withdrawn general consent to the CBI to investigate cases.
As per Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946, the CBI needs consent from the respective state governments to conduct investigations in their jurisdictions.
When asked whether CBI is fully equipped to handle white collar crimes, Luthra said that with the changes in technology and financial frauds, things have changed and the CBI has to equip itself accordingly.
“The CBI often reaches out and gets experts from other fields, who give them necessary capacities, but in my view, a lot more needs to be done on capacity building at the lowest level. We must have scientific investigation, whether in the field of finance or any other field. You will have a greater chance of truth emerging and fairer prosecution. And, if you have a fairer prosecution, you will have a more realistic conviction or acquittal rate,” Luthra said.
He added that the point is if investigations are not attuned or are not sensitive to nuances of transaction, then issues will emerge. Also, the officers are not equipped to handle or appreciate the complex transactions.
Luthra concluded by noting: “The number of prosecutions that are initiated gets skewed because it proceeds either on lack of understanding, or the nature of the transaction, which will lead to passing the burden to the court. In some cases, people do not understand the nature of the crime which has been committed. As anecdotal evidence, I can only tell you that the tendency in most investigators is often to pass the buck to the court, as a result of which those investigations end up in prosecutions, which are going to fail.”
(Sumit Saxena can be contacted at sumit.s@ians.in )
–IANS
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