ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

CBI tells HC its difficulties in taking on Coimbatore blasts probe

The Central Bureau of Investigation has said it would be difficult to probe the bomb blasts in Tamil Nadu including the February 14 serial blasts in Coimbatore, unless the state government provided it with adequate manpower and logistic support.

The agency made the submission in its counter-affidavit filed before the Madras high court when the petition filed by former chief minister J Jayalalitha, seeking a CBI probe into the serial blasts, came up for hearing yesterday.

The bench, comprising Chief Justice M S Liberhan and Justice E Padmanabhan, adjourned to June 9, further hearing on the petition.

The CBI said it was facing an acute shortage of manpower at various levels, with an ever-increasing volume of cases under investigation. In the recent years, various high courts had entrusted highly sensitive and complex cases with the CBI and the probes were also being closely monitored by the respective courts.

The CBI said it had three branches to deal with corruption and criminal and economic offences, and it employed 12 deputy superintendents, 37 inspectors and 17 sub-inspectors in the city. It was probing 155 cases and 317 cases were under trial, accounting for a heavy workload. The Supreme Court and Madras and Bombay high courts had referred 36 cases to it, it added.

It said different types of cases with varying complexity were stretching its potential to the utmost. The cases included the one relating to the assault on advocate Shanmugasundaram and the acid attack on former IAS officer and Janata Party state unit president V Chandralekha during the previous All India Anna DMK regime and the one relating to the cremation shed scam and sandalwood smuggling in the state.

The CBI said the probes it had taken up, by their nature, spread over many parts of the country and they called for a higher manpower and other logistics. As a result, there was a backlog and the quality of the probes was affected. Hence, it was hardly in a position to take up additional cases, it added.

It said if the high court, in view of exigencies, directed the CBI to take up further cases, the agency should be provided with commensurate manpower and other resources by the state government.

The agency wanted five deputy superintendents, ten inspectors and an equal number of sub-inspectors of its choice to be deputed to assist the probe into the serial blasts. Logistic support, including supervisory officers, five medium vehicles, a fully secured independent building with telephone connections at Coimbatore were also necessary, it added.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report