Kollam: Smugglers and their ilk still enjoy a field day as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has become a mute spectator to check illicit activities after the Kerala government revoked a special permission granted to the federal agency during a recent stand-off with the central government.
The biggest investigating agency in the country is helpless when it comes to registration of cases in Kerala as has happened after its recent seizure of gold and currency that were being smuggled in through the Calicut International Airport with the connivance of Customs officials.
During the raids carried out on the intervening night of January 10 and 11, 2021 at the airport, CBI officials seized gold worth Rs 1.17 crore as well as foreign currency and cigarettes which were sneaked in from Dubai.
Subsequently, nine Customs officials including superintendents and inspectors were suspended from service. The CBI wrote a letter to the state government seeking its permission to register a case in connection with the seizure. About a month has passed since the letter was written but there is no response from the government yet.
Such is the predicament of the CBI that it will not be able to register an FIR even if it bust a smuggling racket. Nor can it share formally any information with the Vigilance wings or officials of other investigating agency.
Not just airports under ambit
CBI's difficulty is not confined to illegalities in airports. Even if a tip-off is received regarding corruption in the offices of various central forces, central tourism department, Employees' Provident Fund Organization, Employees' State Insurance Corporation, Indian Railways, nationalised banks, AIR, enforcement agencies and even the Customs the CBI officers may have to remain as a mute spectator in the absence of state government's permission to investigate such matters.
Any seizure or bust during a raid by any investigating agency is followed by several rounds of investigation. The usual practice is that once the involvement of any official is confirmed in smuggling, more evidence has to be collected through raids and further inspection on the staff and the smugglers' gang. However, the investigating officer is empowered to probe or carry out inspection only if a FIR is registered in connection with the seizure. With the permission from state government getting delayed it will be impossible now to collect more evidence. As a result the case gets derailed slowly without further arrests or seizures.
Why the state is against the CBI
Kerala government had withdrawn the special permission to the CBI late last year as it was miffed with the role of several central probe agencies in the investigations into the diplomatic baggage gold smuggling scandal and related cases that had embarrassed the state's main ruling party, the CPM. The party had blamed the BJP-led central government for trying to defame the state government using the investigating agencies.
Unlike the National Investigation Agency, which has country-wide jurisdiction to take over any case related to terrorism, the CBI requires the consent of the state government's concerned under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, the law that governs the agency's functioning.
