CBI issues new guidelines for probing cases regarding disproportionate assets

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has come up with a road map to standardise the process of investigation into alleged disproportionate assets (DA), a move that comes after the setbacks that the agency faced in high-profile cases involving former Uttar Pradesh chief ministers Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati. In an internal circular, accessed by ET, the agency has said it wants the probe team to record the version of the accused.

While probing allegations against Yadav, the CBI had not at first sought a clarification from him and prepared a report based on his income and expenditure statements. The note also warns the sleuths that assets of the family members should not be taken as assets of the government servant in case the family members have independent sources of income. This, too, marks a divergence from the probe against Yadav and others, where the CBI had included the assets of all the family members that proved detrimental to the investigations. At times, the CBI has been pulled up by the courts for filing a charge-sheet without a valid sanction of prosecution.

The latest guidelines require the agency to seek sanction of prosecution against the government servant concerned from the authority competent to remove him/her and mandate that the agency place all the evidence collected during the investigation before the authority for consideration.