Law Panel favours creation of federal anti-terror agency

New Delhi, May 27 : The Parliamentary Panel on Law has said that it is in favour of a federal crime agency, including giving special powers and intelligence know how. E M Sudarsana Natchiappan, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, said: "The main objective of setting up a Federal Crime Agency or reconstituting the CBI as Central Bureau of Intelligence and Investigations is to help prevent terror attacks."

He also said, "Giving special powers and full-fledged intelligence system to the CBI will save crucial time lost in transfer of investigation of from state police to central agencies in terror cases."

The panel had in its 24th report, tabled before the Rajya Sabha, proposed reconstituting the CBI and developing it on the lines of the America's, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which handles all terror-related and inter-state crimes.

At present, the CBI steps in only after state governments transfer investigations of such cases to it.

Natchiappan's comments assumes significance in the wake of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's May 17 statement, after a two-day visit to Bhutan, that there was a need for creating a federal crime agency on the lines similar to the FBI in the United States to tackle terrorism and white collar crimes in various parts of the country.

The Prime Minister, while referring to the Jaipur serial blasts, had said that the creation of a Federal Crime Agency was the need of the hour as terrorism and several white-collar crimes had inter-state ramifications.

ANI