NEW DELHI: Justifying late night surgical actions against top feuding officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the government reasoned that the Centre had to intervene to protect the institutional integrity of the agency and to avoid it becoming an object of mockery.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitely termed Opposition accusations of the government's actions being to preempt probe against the BJP chief Amit Shah as "rubbish".Jaitely argued that the Centre acted on the recommendations of the Chief Vigilance Commission (CVC), which is a superintending agency on matters of investigations.
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"The Director and Special Director both have leveled allegations against each other. They cannot monitor probe against themselves. Maintaining honesty and fairness of probe is a precondition to the institutional integrity of the CBI. In the light of the extraordinary situations, the Centre acted on the recommendations of the CBI to send both the feuding officers on leave as part of an interim arrangement," Jaitely told reporters during the Cabinet briefing.
Refuting the Opposition charges of the Narendra Modi government allegedly prevented the CBI Director Alok Verma from probing cases against the BJP chief and the Rafale deal, Jaitely termed the allegations "rubbish", while stating that such suggestions could mean that the leaders had access to the thinking of the top officials of the investigating agency which in itself would have cast serious doubt on the fairness and institutional integrity of the agency.
"The government stepped in to ensure institutional integrity of the CBI and avert it becoming an object of mockery," said Jaitely, while adding that the Centre accepted the recommendations of the CVC, which has the power of superintendence under section 4(1) of the Act in relation to the investigation.
The minister asserted that the government couldn't have allowed a situation where those who are accused and have fled the country would have raisd fingers at the institutional integrity of the CBI.
Jaitely stated that the CVC would decide on the composition of the Special Investigation Team (SIT)."It's up to the CVC to decide the manner in which the charhes against the two officers of the CBI have to be probed," added Jaitely. He also noted that the government will not pre-judge anything in the ongoing affairs in the investigating agency.