2,200 senior central government officials under CBI lens

NEW DELHI: As many as 2,200 senior central government officials are under the scanner of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for their alleged malpractices including corruption. In past one year, CBI has registered FIR against 101 such officials that included senior bureaucrats, officials from public sector undertakings, defence personnel and bank officials.

CBI director Anil Sinha said there has been a quantum jump in number of cases registered using the surveillance mechanism. “The registration has increased by 94% from 2014 when CBI had registered only 52 cases to 101 cases this year,” Sinha said.

Some of these cases being investigated by the agency include a case against IAS officer Sanjay Pratap Singh which was raised in December last year and disproportionate assets case against Himachal Pradesh chief minister Veer Bhadra Singh.

The agency said the cases were registered after it came to the light during its monitoring that the concerned officers had demanded bribe to grant favours. CBI also filed 1,044 charge sheets last year which is the highest by the agency during the last five years. This includes chargesheet against former congress MP Naveen Jindal, former MoS coal Dasari Narain Rao among others.

Sinha while listing CBI's achievement of the agency said, “The mood of the public is against corruption. If CBI will not side with them, who will?."