The arrest of bigwigs like former Union minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi, sports czar Suresh Kalmadi, mining barons Reddy brothers in high-profile corruption cases kept the CBI in headlines during the year as it battled to keep its current organisational structure in the light of proposed Lokpal.
The agency which has a poor record in probing corruption cases against politicians managed to get an iron curtain around it from public scrutiny, as after its persuasion, the government agreed to exempt its functions from the ambit of Right to Information Act even though nodal department DOPT has termed the demand of CBI as “vague“.
The CBI, which is facing shortage of over 1,000 officers, put its foot down before the government opposing any move to bring changes in its structure in the light of proposed Lokpal as the civil society and Team Anna demanded that the agency should be brought under anti-corruption ombudsman.
As the debate over the Lokpal touched a new pitch, demands to bifurcate the agency’s corruption investigation wing were also raised which were strongly opposed by the CBI Director before the Parliamentary Standing Committee who demanded more autonomy and freedom in his police functions.
In the final Lokpal bill approved by the Cabinet, CBI has managed to retain organisational form as well as changes have been made in the appointment procedure of agency’s Chief as it has been proposed to include Chief Justice of India in the process along with the Prime Minister and the Leader of Opposition.
While CBI battled to get exemption from RTI Act and retain its structure, the agency started concluding various aspects of country’s most staggering corruption cases which include CWG scam, 2G spectrum scam, Adarsh land scam among others by filing charge sheets.