CBI investigating over 1100 cases; 8719 cases pending in courts

New Delhi, Apr 23 (UNI) The country's premier investigating agency was stretched beyond its means and overburdened with over 1100 cases pending investigation.

While in February this year, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had 1164 pending investigation, the figure came down to 1162 in March, agency sources said here.

As on March 2008, prosecution sanctions were pending in 114 cases. Out of these, 89 cases were pending with Central Government departments/authorities and the remaining 35 with state government authorities. There were 10 cases in which prosecution sanction was required from both central and various state governments.

In the 89 cases pending with central government departments/authorities, 264 separate sanctions were sought by the CBI. Similarly, in the 35 cases pending with state government departments/authorities, 55 separate sanctions were sought by the central agency.

A slow pace of trials by various courts has been blamed for a massive pile up of pending court cases. Till March, 2008, 8719 cases were pending in courts as compared to 8688 court cases in February this year.

The agency said, out of 47 cases disposed of from trial during March, 31 resulted in conviction, 14 were acquitted or discharged and two were ''otherwise'' disposed off.

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