Probe in bank fraud cases worth Rs 21,074.43 crore are at a standstill as five Opposition ruled states – Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Rajasthan – have not given consent to the CBI to investigate it in the past three years.
The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has informed the Rajya Sabha recently that 128 requests submitted between 2019 and 2022 (till February 28) for grant of consent from the CBI are pending before these states.
These five states and four others – Mizoram, Kerala, Jharkhand and Meghalaya – have withdrawn general consent to the CBI to probe cases alleging that the Centre is misusing the agency for its political gains. Incidentally, Meghalaya is the only state where an NDA ally is in power.
This has led to a situation where the CBI has to seek separate permissions for each case it has to investigate in these states.
When it comes to bank fraud cases, Maharashtra tops the list of pending requests – there are 101 requests from the CBI of cases worth Rs 20,312.53 crore are pending. Punjab has 12 requests for investigating fraud worth Rs 298.94 crore and West Bengal Rs 293.64 crore worth fraud in six cases pending. Chhattisgarh has eight requests (Rs 157.26 crore) pending while Rajasthan has one case of Rs 12.06 crore pending.
If one takes all requests, including fraud cases, there are a total of 173 requests pending while during the same period these states had given consent to probe 101 cases. Punjab is yet to decide on 132 requests from the CBI while it has given consent in 52 requests.
There is no request pending with Mizoram and Meghalaya while Kerala has two and Jharkhand seven. All the requests pending with West Bengal and Chhattisgarh are bank fraud cases. Rajasthan has two requests pending while Punjab has 16.
Mizoram was the first to withdraw consent in July 2015 while Meghalaya became the last in February this year to do the same, according to a reply by Minister of State Jitendra Singh to a question raised by senior BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi recently.
Recently in a report on the Demand for Grants of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, a Parliamentary Standing Committee has expressed concern over the states withdrawing their general consent to the CBI.
The Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice headed by Modi had sought details from the Ministry about the development. It had sought the number of cases in which the states have refused to give consent and the number of cases in which specific consent has been given by states.
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