Supreme Court Justice R.M. Lodha described India’s premier investigative agency Central Bureau of Investigation in a courtroom in 2013 as a “caged parrot” and “its master’s voice.” “The CBI has become a caged parrot. We can’t have CBI a caged parrot speaking in master’s voice. It is a sordid saga where there are many masters and one parrot,” the court had observed. Over the years, CBI has come under the scanner for repeatedly being used by either the Centre or state governments to initiate, influence, bend or close cases and investigations. Here is a list of major incidents in recent years when CBI’s independent role came into question: January 3 2017: The latest incident that raised questions on the CBI’s autonomous functioning is the arrest of Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandhopadhyay in connection with the Rose Valley chit fund scam. His arrest created a ruckus in West Bengal after TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minster Mamata Banerjee took to the streets with her party workers and legislators in protest. The allegations, like often, were targeted at the Central government, specifically Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing it of “using the government agency” against TMC for protesting against demonetisation. December 11, 2016: Reacting to media reports on the VVIP chopper scam, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala speaking at a press conference accused the BJP government of using the CBI as its puppet. “A captive CBI wouldn't succeed in covering up Modi ji's disastrous demonetisation mess. Time for the Modi government to answer questions in Parliament”. December 15, 2015: CBI officials entered Delhi Secretariat and sealed all three floors. All offices were off limit including that of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. CBI then raided the office and residence of Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar. The raid was linked to an investigation on graft charges levelled on Kumar by an AAP member Ashish Joshi who has recently been sacked from the Delhi Dialogue Commission. The case was directly sent to CBI without going through Delhi Police. Kejriwal lashed out at PM Modi alleging that he was behind the raid and that he wanted to scare Kejriwal by using CBI. October, 2014: Former director of CBI Joginder Singh called the agency a puppet in the hands of the government. According to a report in the Hindustan Times, Singh said: “The governments at the Centre actually guide the agency on how to work. The cases are opened and closed with change of guard at the Centre” adding that “the CBI receives written orders from influential politicians and ministers on what to do and what not to do. Not only the sanctioning of cases is planned, the interference and abnormal pressure disrupts the investigation against the accused as well." April 14, 2014: INLD chief and former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala accused the CBI of working at the behest of Congress and the agency building a case against him of disproportionate assets which was miscalculated. November 1, 2011: Former Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura, who was one of the six main accused in the 2G scam case, lashed out at the CBI for blocking his bail plea but not opposing the bail plea of five other accused that included then DMK Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi. To block Behura’s bail plea, CBI had argued “an influential person and there is every apprehension of his tampering with evidence and winning over/threatening of vital witnesses." The government had even formed a empowered group of ministers in 2013 to draft a law that would protect the autonomy of the agency. The law, however, never saw the light of the day.
