A group of people linked with the development said that The Central bureau of Investigation(CBI) is nowadays functioning on the practice of to ensure that the witnessed linked with its cases are not been called for questioning purpose on day to day basis to avoid the allegations of harassment that were being imposed on CBI .
Witnesses were called every single day in many cases like 2G coal spectrum scam, and other high profile cases like the one Punjab national bank scan associated with Nirav modi and Mehul choksi and the corruption case against former union minister of India P Chidambaram and the Sushant Singh rajput case. Witnesses of these cases were called everyday for investigation and clarification of the various issues linked to these cases.
Whilst maintaining the anonymity of the case an officer cited that employee of a public sector bank was called dozens for times in the year of 2018 for the purpose of investigation in a case of bank fraud.
CBI director Praveen Sinha proposed a new strategy that any investigating officer must only question a witness after the whole case is studied thoroughly and all the evidences are collected to avoid the unnecessary harassment of any witness.
An officer while keeping the identity hidden said that IO’s must prepare a questionare before the investigation and even send a copy of that questionare to the concerned parties in advance.
An officer said “Obviously, the witnesses can be called as and when there is new evidence in a case but at the beginning of the probe, we should avoid calling people every day to seek clarification on small issues. It should be covered during couple of rounds (of questioning). Calling a person again and again shows poor preparation by the IO and the concerned branch,”.
Earlier a former Indian police service officer suggested to video record all the interrogations to avoid any sought of confusion or false plays later but this couldn’t be fulfilled as recording each and every statement needs a larger budget and resources.
Neeraj kumar, former CBI joint director said”Be it CBI, Enforcement Directorate or any other investigation agency, this idea of calling people again and again for questioning should anyway be shunned. This mechanism is in order and there is no debate about it that Ios should do their work in advance before summoning anyone. It’s a welcome step by CBI interim chief”.
The layer of accused parties or some of a major scam i.e. 2G coal scam, Vijay Aggarwal Advocate said“It is a step in the right direction as in 2G case one of the reasons for acquittal was also delay in recording statement of witnesses as well as multiple statement of the same witnesses. In that case, before the arrest of (former telecom minister) A Raja, witnesses gave one statement, and after the arrest, the same witnesses took a contradictory stand”.
Further he added that “Multiple statements of the same witness give the defence a chance to point out contradictions. In the Akshardham temple attack case of Gujarat, Supreme Court ordered acquittal because of the delay in recording the statement of witnesses. Also, CBI manual 2005 contemplates concept of plan of investigation in Para 14.18. So, if you have a plan then such multiple statements and delay is not required. Though on a lighter note, it would make our (defence counsels’) job a little more difficult,”
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