Nine States have withdrawn "general consent" to the CBI to investigate cases in their territories, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh told Rajya Sabha on Thursday. There are about 128 pending requests with five of these States for CBI investigations into bank frauds with a value of more than ₹21,000 crore.
In West Bengal, the State Government is yet to permit investigation into six bank fraud cases that is worth more than ₹293.64 crore.
In Chhattisgarh, the CBI has sought permission to probe eight cases worth more than ₹157 crore. In Rajasthan, CBI looks for probing a bank fraud case worth ₹12.06 crore.
Maharashtra tops the chart with 101 bank fraud cases waiting to be investigated by the federal agency. The total amount of fraud involved in these cases are more than ₹20,312.53 crore. In Punjab too, 12 cases are to be probed by the CBI and the value of corruption in these cases are ₹298.94 crore.
Mizoram, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Jharkhand, Punjab and Meghalaya are the nine States that have withdrawn general consent to the federal investigating agency.
In the last three years, these States have given permission to the CBI to probe 101 cases, but have declined permission to investigate 173 cases. Maharashtra alone denied permission to investigate 132 cases, but gave permission to probe 52 cases.
"The CBI functions within a well-established legal and procedural framework, deriving its powers under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act (DSPE) Act, 1946. Government has also taken various measures for strengthening the CBI, which, inter-alia, include upgradation of infrastructure for enhancing capacities viz. - Capacity building of officers, up-gradation of ICT Infrastructure, Centralised Technological Vertical (CTV) under the Technical and Forensic Support Units (TAFSUS) to support specialised crime investigation, modernisation of CBI Academy, Ghaziabad and comprehensive modernisation of CBI Branches offices," Singh said in the written answer to a question from BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on the issue.