NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the West Bengal Police to double the number of policemen it had earlier offered to the CBI to probe non-Saradha chit fund scam cases in the state.
The CBI, which is struggling under the weight of a huge number of ponzi scam cases, had made a plea before the apex court seeking modification of its earlier order asking the agency to take over the probe of all such cases on the ground of manpower shortage.
The CBI said it has been probing around 970 chit fund scam cases. But due to manpower shortage, it was facing difficulties in registering 265 non-Saradha cases pertaining to West Bengal alone. It had demanded 10 SPs, 15 Investigating Officers (IOs) of the rank of Additional SPs, 30 IOs of deputy SP rank and 85 IOs of Inspector rank from the West Bengal Police.
In addition, the agency had also said it needed 40 SIs, 20 ASIs and 30 Head Constables. Appearing for the CBI, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar said in pursuance of the apex court’s direction, a meeting between the West Bengal DGP and CBI Joint Director took place.The state police, however, was ready to provide only three DySPs, two Inspectors, five SIs and 10 constables, the Solicitor General said. He added that even those officers were not sent on deputation to the CBI.
The Bench then asked senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for West Bengal, to double the offer and provide the policemen’s list, which would be four times more in number than what was proposed by the state DGP.The CBI would select half of the listed personnel for deputation with the agency till the time they are required, the Bench said.
PROBE AGENCY SHORT OF 754 OFFICERS
The CBI said it was short of 754 officers and so facing difficulties in carrying out the court’s instructions. The CBI said 971 cases have been registered, of which 464 related to non-Saradha chit fund firms.