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The change of guard in Maharashtra has come as a major relief for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which will soon be able to freely register corruption and fraud cases in the state again.
People aware of the matter expect the Eknath Shinde government to reverse the decision taken by the MVA government on October 21, 2020 to withdraw the general consent under section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) act – a mandatory legal requirement for CBI to register cases in any state.
“The notification in this regard is expected soon, probably by next week,” said a CBI official who asked not to be named.
The federal investigation agency was struggling to investigate large number of cases in the state for past 21 months for the lack of general consent. In such a situation, it has to send requests on a case-to-case basis. Maharashtra gave permission to CBI to carry out probes in 51 matters during this period.
According to the data shared by the government in Parliament in March, at 132, Maharashtra had the most requests pending for CBI probes. It is among nine states that do not allow the agency to operate in their jurisdiction.
The other states where CBI is facing problems in registering corruption cases due to withdrawal of general consent are Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Kerala, Meghalaya and Mizoram. Overall, 173 individual requests sent by CBI to these states are pending.
“As soon as Maharashtra government again accords the general consent in coming days, cases will be registered in the pending matters. Some of the requests sent to Maharashtra in the last 21 months include bank frauds cases involving huge amounts,” said a second CBI officer, requesting anonymity.
In February this year, CBI spokesperson R C Joshi claimed in a statement that “there are around 100 high value bank fraud cases that could not be registered due to non-accordance of specific consent u/s 6 of DSPE act by state governments where the general consent has been withdrawn”.
The Supreme Court, too, in November last year, expressed concern over the issue. A bench headed by Justice S K Kaul said “it is not a desirable position”.
Advocate Vijay Aggarwal, who has represented several accused in cases investigated by CBI and the Enforcement Directorate said: “There are number of complaints which were made to CBI and because of the requirement of seeking consent, CBI has forwarded such complaints to the state for investigation. The piling up of complaints will stop now. But what scares me is that Mumbai courts are already overburdened. There are only six courts for CBI in Mumbai as compared to 25 in Delhi. Also, every CBI case is sure to result in a corresponding money laundering case by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and there is only court in Mumbai dealing with the Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) cases”.
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