MONTHLY FEATURE - POLICE AND SECURITY - JULY, 1993

Dr.S.Subramanian, IPS (Retd.)

People of India have great faith in the impartiality, integrity and the capacity of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to unravel serious and complicated crimes. This faith has to be nurtured and built up by making CBI a functionally autonomous statutory body and by upgrading the professional skills of its personnel. CBI should be transformed into a National Crime Fighting Agency, to combat criminals without fear or favour.

Whenever and wherever a serious and gruesome crime takes place in India, - be it the assassination of a V.I.P.; murder of a Journalist; rape of nuns; blinding of the innocents; Bofors Pay-off; Securities Scam and attempted murder of a Godman; the cry goes up ‘call in the CBI’. Even the prime accused in the Securities Scam Harshad Mehta wants his allegation against the Prime Minister investigated by the C.B.I.! The confidence of the common man in the capacity of the CBI to unearth the crime and bring to book the culprits has earned the CBI the Sobriquet - the Crime Busters of India.

Is this reputation well deserved or the fallout the negative image the State Police forces have in public mind? From its humble beginnings in the pre-independence years as the Special Police Establishment, CBI has grown in stature as the premier crime fighting agency of the Nation and has acquired enormous responsibilities. Unfortunately, the organisation has not been bestowed with enough attention and care by the powers that be and it is languishing for want of legal authority, adequate staff, modern gadgetry and scientific aids to crime detection. CBI solves complicated cases through the sheer grit and perseverance, incorruptibility and strict adherence to legal and ethical norms and devotion to duty of its dedicated and loyal investigating personnel. This can not go on for ever and the increase in workload will crush the organisation into ineffectiveness. These defects add to the delays in fainalisation of cases by the CBI and since justice delayed is justice denied, these delays undermine the confidence of the people. The need of the hour is therefore to take a comprehensive view of the role, organisation and structure of the CBI and to devise suitable safeguards to insulate it from the political pressures from the ruling party at the Centre. Accountability of the organisation should be clearly spelt out and its functional autonomy ensured.

In a country of continental dimensions and diverse interest groups there will always be centripetal tendencies in India and due to political reasons, it may not be possible for the Governments to take a just and correct view of the criminal matters. Efforts would always be made to deflect the course of justice. Therefore, there will always be a need to have a Federal Criminal Investigating Agency to step in to prevent miscarriage of justice. Since law and order is a State subject, federal agencies can not act without the concurrence of State Governments and investigate into crime that occurred within the jurisdiction of the States. We have seen in the past, that the State Governments are loathe to give consent for CBI Investigation as the political motives of the Centre were suspect. It is a fact that the Centre had used the CBI to ‘teach lessons’ to politically errant and ‘leashed in’ CBI, when the errant became compliant. Thus the CBI should be removed from the administrative control of the Central Government and made into a statutory body reporting to the Parliament annually. It can derive administrative support from the Cabinet Secretariat. This would bring working of the CBI under the direct scrutiny of Parliament and as the head of the organisation would be answerable tot hat august body, scope for political interference in the working of the organisation would become a thing of the past.

Suitable amendments in the Law are to be made to enable the CBI to take up cases falling within its charter of duties which should include: cases of corruption of all public servants under the Union Government, Public Sector Undertakings; Defence Services and Para-Military Forces; Human Rights Violations; Economic Crime of all India dimensions; white slave traffic; Terrorist offences; International Trafficking in Drugs; Offences committed by Indian Nationals on High Seas and mid-air; and all offences against National Security. In other cases, where a specific request to take up investigation has been made by the Central or State Governments or on the directions of the Supreme Court or High Court, CBI could take up investigation.

To deal with this expanded charter of work, CBI has to be restructured and reorganised with emphasis on specialisation and modern methods of investigation. The Director of CBI and the Additional Directors should have an assured term of five years. Their appointment should be made in consultation with the UPSC and CVC. The organisation should be organised functionally and each speciality should be headed by an Additional Director. All Central Forensic Science Laboratories and Central Detective Training Schools are to be brought under the CBI. It should have at least one office in each State and Union Territory. In all major supervisory public organisations like Reserve Bank of India, a Cell of the CBI should be established to work in close liaison with the Inspection and Internal Audit Departments of that organisation.

Personnel for the CBI should be selected for their integrity and capacity to withstand inducements. They should be subjected to psychological and lie detector tests at the time of induction. Basic unit of recruitment should be Junior Detectives (the present HC) and the educational qualification should be ‘Plus Two (XII Standards)’. They should be put through a two-year training programme in Law, Investigation, Court Procedure, etc. and skills to conduct searches, effect seizures, guarding of scene of crime and identification of suspects. After seven years of service, they should be eligible to be promoted to the next rank of Senior Detectives (S.I.).

The minimum educational qualification for the Senior Detective should be a Degree in Law. They should undergo one year’s training in investigation etc. followed by six months attachment to a Police Station and six months with a Prosecutor’s Office. Specialised in-service courses in White Collar Crime, Drug Trafficking, Conventional Crimes etc. are to be organised for this cadre and only those who have put in five years service and have successfully undergone at least two specialised courses alone should be considered for promotion to the next rank of Detective supervisor (Inspector). Entry to this rank will be by promotion only.

Candidates with specialised technical qualifications like CA; ICWA; CAIIB; MBA; Computer Science; Financial Analysts; Forensic Science, etc. will be inducted as Technical Advisors in the rank of Detective Superintendents (Class-I). 75% of the senior posts will be reserved for departmental candidates through promotion and 25% of the posts will be earmarked for IPS Officers who have a flair for criminal investigation. Personnel of CBI particularly at lower and middle levels are to be deputed to Federal agencies abroad like FBI, BKA, Scotlandyard etc. on attachment for a period of six months so that they get the benefit of observing the working of detectives in advanced countries. Such an exposure would be professionally enriching to the Indian officers.

CBI should be encouraged to use the latest advances in Science and Technology in its work and all the Central Forensic Science Laboratories should become part of CBI to facilitate closer interaction between scientists and investigators. For the same reason, Central Detective Training Schools should be brought under the CBI and a National Academy of Investigation should be established by the CBI to train its own officers and those of State Police forces.

To fulfill its role as the premier National Crime Investigating Agency, CBI should come out of its ‘Police Shell’ and become and elitist organisation. Consistent with the requirement of confidentiality to protect the interests of innocent citizens, its activities should become open for public scrutiny. It should aim at creating an image of the impartial crime fighter.

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