The Nation: CVC: New Man for Old Cases

If Vittal has to live up to his image of "Mr Clean", one of the first tasks before the statutory chief would be to speed up the investigation into pending CBI cases.

Central Vigilance Commissioner N. Vittal has the reputation of being the "Mr Clean" secretary to the Department of Telecom, an epitome of sleaze under Sukh Ram during the Congress rule. Vittal did not clean up the muck; he just remained honest himself. However, his new role as the central vigilance commissioner (CVC) has a more demanding prescription. Having become, by the CVC Ordinance, the superboss of the Union Government's two powerful anti-corruption wings -- the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) -- his plate is full of investigations that are half-finished. If he can clinch conviction in at least a few cases or get charges framed in some others, he will develop a new persona as a chief with a mission. Besides, it will give the CBI a breather after it looked sheepish with the acquittal of nearly all politicians (except Congress leader Balram Jakhar and Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal) last week in the Jain hawala case.

Much of Vittal's efforts to revitalise the CBI will, of course, depend on the choice of the bureau's director, a matter on which the home secretary and the personnel secretary have an equal voice. However, with the CVC endowed with the power of superintendence over the CBI's functioning in the new CVC Ordinance, the top investigative agency will remain accountable to the CVC even in its day-to-day functioning. To that extent, Vittal needs a CBI director with whom he can vibe.

PENDING PROBES

INDIAN BANK CASE: 25 FIRs were filed in the Rs 15,000 crore scam; major beneficiaries are yet to be nabbed.
MAYAWATI CASE: The float pump deal worth Rs 4 crore signed by Mayawati when she was chief minister has been pending for six months.
JAYALALITHA CASE: The Rs 3.5 crore foreign donation case registered during H.D. Deve Gowda's rule has been hanging fire for two years now.
WHEAT SCAM: Flouting rules, Rs 1,000 crore worth of wheat was purchased during Gujral's regime. An inferior quality was imported.
TANWAR MURDER CASE: The CBI has drawn a blank in the case allegedly involving former Congress chief Sitaram Kesri.
BOFORS CASE: It's been 11 years since the kickbacks from the gun deal went into six accounts. No arrests so far.
MOHAPATRA MURDER CASE: An IAS officer dealing with the lease of mines worth crores of rupees was found dead under mysterious circumstances. Politicians and some companies had shown interest in the lease.

Prior to the ordinance, the CBI director could well be a law unto himself if he so chose. CBI chiefs frequently rode roughshod over the hierarchy to hobnob with the prime minister of the day. Like Mohan Katre did under Rajiv Gandhi, or K. Vijaya Rama Rao under P.V. Narasimha Rao. Since A.B. Vajpayee became prime minister, Trinath Mishra has met him only once. If Mishra is replaced, his successor is least likely to cast his Edgar Hoover-style shadow on the Government. This is because the superintending power has now been shifted to the CVC, a statutory body. Even in the matter of appointment of officers in the CBI of the rank of joint director or above, the real power has now shifted from the director to the three-member committee of the CVC, and the home and personnel secretaries.

After Vittal gets his team in place in the CBI, he has to speed up investigation in over a dozen cases involving influential politicians -- notably J. Jayalalitha -- whose fortunes can turn the destiny of the Government. There are some other cases that may have no bearing on the stability of the BJP-led Government -- like the Rs 1,000-crore wheat import scam or the Indian Bank scandal. Yet a purposeful investigation in these matters is imperative to prove that the CBI has finally been insulated from political interference.

In the Indian Bank case, the CBI has registered 25 firs against top officials of the bank and others accused of causing losses to the tune of crores of rupees. The bank's CMD M. Gopalakrishnan got one extension after another during Rao's tenure when even the Reserve Bank of India had filed adverse reports against him. The CBI did not act against Gopalakrishnan either during the Rao regime or in the United Front rule. It happened allegedly due to the immunity offered to Gopalakrishnan by powerful Congress leaders of Tamil Nadu who broke away to form the TMC in 1996. Why the real accused and beneficiaries in the case have continued to be shielded even in the BJP rule is a mystery. The only progress in the case is that the Indian Bank's new management has now agreed to file a criminal case in Singapore on its own instead of the CBI seeking evidence from that country. Since Singapore has so far refused to furnish bank documents to the CBI on the grounds of confidentiality, the Government has decided to allow the nationalised bank to fight the legal battle in Singapore. The CBI is technically out of the case now. However, a top CBI official says there are "fresh leads" in the investigation, and all that the bureau needs is "suspension of political interference" to pursue these.

A case was registered by the CBI in March against BSP leader Mayawati on the charge of irregularities in the purchase of float pumps by the Uttar Pradesh government when she was chief minister. The CBI would have sat on the case but for the change of guard at the Centre in March this year. A day after Vajpayee was invited to form the Government, the CBI registered the long-pending case against Mayawati. Though the Supreme Court rejected Mayawati's plea for anticipatory bail in the first week of August, she has not yet been interrogated by the CBI. However, the real reason for the delay may well lie in the value of her party's five members in the Lok Sabha who, in an hour of crisis, can make all the difference between the survival of the Vajpayee Government and its collapse.

Another case before the CBI is the Gujral government's controversial import order for wheat worth Rs 1,000 crore earlier this year. Instead of registering an fir, the CBI has now started a preliminary inquiry to find out whether there is ground for a criminal investigation. The probe has been kept at a low key perhaps for the political reason that Gujral is now cosying up to the BJP.

Similarly, in the Jayalalitha cases, the complaint of Rs 3.5 crore illegal foreign contribution accepted by her was registered by the CBI during the UF rule. Since March, neither the CBI nor the ED -- entrusted with the currency law violation -- has moved its little finger in this investigation. There is also the Dr S. Tanwar murder case involving former Congress president Sitaram Kesri besides the case against the Congress for accepting donations in violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act. In both cases, little headway has been made. There is a reprieve for Sukh Ram, Vittal's boss as communications minister. He is now an ally of the BJP in Himachal Pradesh and can therefore be presumed to be safe, but his arch rival Virbhadra Singh of the Congress is enmeshed in CBI investigation.

In its order last year recommending the CVC be made a statutory body to oversee anti-corruption probes, the Supreme Court said it was laying down "the necessary steps which provide permanent insulation to the agencies against extraneous influences ..." Now that the ground is laid, it is for Vittal to tread surefootedly on it.