Ranjit Sinha row: Why premier investigating agency facing credibility crisis?

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is going through rough road. The sordid chapter which began with the Supreme Court describing the premier agency as 'the caged parrot' is yet to come out to a conclusion.

Post the Ranjit Sinha episode, two different benches of the Supreme Court have questioned its functioning recently. On September 8, a bench headed by Justice H L Dattu expressed concern over the "fairness of trial in 2G scam cases" following CBI director's alleged rendezvous with scam accused at his residence. On September 9, another bench of the apex court expressed surprise over the gravity of allegations relating to the coal scam cases.

These developments, in the past few months, indicate how the Central probe agency botched up investigations in serious cases acting at behest of its political bosses.

CBI got sobriquet of 'caged parrot' by Supreme Court

Last year, the Supreme Court questioned the credibility of CBI probe into the coal scam and asked for a thorough and qualitative investigation. Raising questions on the independence of CBI, the apex court called it a "caged parrot speaking in its master's voice".
The apex court also made scathing comments on the functioning of the investigating agency saying, "It's a sordid saga that there are many masters and one parrot."
This after it came to light that Ashwani Kumar, then Law Minister and senior officials PMO and Coal Ministry made certain changes in the ‘status report,' on the allocation of coal blocks.
During UPA's tenure, the top probe agency was criticised for working in favour of the accused of various scams.
CBI comes under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension, this provides ample scope for those sitting in Government to interfere with the functioning of the agency.

CBI needs to be given more autonomy

Undoubtedly, the recent controversy surrounding the CBI chief's conduct has cast a shadow not just on the agency's credibility but the system as a whole. But, this is not the first time agency's image has been dented. For the last 10 years, it has been called CBI as Congress Bureau of Investigation.
Its style of functioning has always been questioned. It is being thought that most of its status report are influenced by the Ministers and the same is going to continue until its structure and powers are revamped.