The Diminishing Credibility of Probe Agencies

It is gaining ground in the country that cases against political leaders are inspired more by political vendetta than by any holy intention of bringing them to justice for their criminality.

The latest example of politicisation of the probe mechanism is the discharge of former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his then deputy Manish Sisodia in the liquor scam case.

There is no other explanation for the fall of the case at the threshold itself. CBI officials are no novices in the probe wonderland. They are trained and efficient to make out a fool-proof case. The decision reflects very poorly on them as they were not able to convince the court that they had sufficient evidence with them to begin trial in matter.

Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia offered prayers at Delhi's Hanuman Mandir after they were acquitted in the liquor scam case

The probe agency acted unusually fast as Delhi neared the Assembly election last year. Kejriwal was put behind the bars. And the BJP turned the heat on him as an icon of corruption. People believed the charges against him and voted BJP to power in the Capital.

A pattern has evolved in all such cases: the probe gets into the highest gear near the election, and thereafter the cases are left to die after they have served their political purpose.

The list is very long..

Three decades ago, the bribery allegation in the Bofors gun deal case lingered on for one-and-half decades, ending up in the discharge of all the accused, after consuming around Rs 200 crore in the probe. The 2G spectrum allocation case and the JMM bribery case met the similar fate.

The discharge of Kejriwal and Sisodia furthers this pattern. The court dismissed all the charges against them at the pre-charge framing stage itself, which is a disgrace for the CBI which probed the allegations.

The incarceration of Kejriwal and Sisodia post facto proved that they were jailed and their images tarnished to taint their political capital to win the 2025 Delhi Assembly election.

The country's criminal justice system is supposed to be independent of the political party in power. But the ground realities belie it. We can recall a gross case of interference in the probe when the then law minister in the UPA government summoned CBI officials to guide them on how to go about in the 2G spectrum allocation scam probe.

In the Bofors case, after years of probe during which attempts were made to sabotage it, the then Additional Solicitor General admitted before the Delhi High Court that no evidence was found against any of the accused, including the late prime minister, Rajeev Gandhi, who was alleged to have received the kickback.

In the 2G spectrum allocation case, the court blamed the prosecution to weaken the case leading to the acquittal of the Telecom minister A. Raja in the Manmohan Singh government and the other accused.

Raja and his supporters were so sure of his acquittal that they had gathered outside the court premises with bags crammed with crackers, and when they got to know the acquittal verdict, they celebrated Diwali by bursting them..

The JMM bribery case was sabotaged by appointing a Special Public Prosecutor in place of the CBI prosecutor. The only exception to this sinister pattern is the conviction of RJD patriarch Lalu Yadav in the fodder scam.  But the credit goes to the then CBI deputy director UN Biswas. He did not waver from his path despite threats and intimidation of politicians.