CBI's EOW should be strengthened at state-level: Ashwani Kumar

MUMBAI: With economic offences seeing an increase, CBI Director Ashwani Kumar on Saturday emphasised the need to strengthen the Bureau's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) at the state-level.

"Many new economic crimes are fast emerging and with developing technology committing an economic offence has become very easy. There is a need to strengthen the economic offences wing at the state-level," Kumar told reporters at the inauguration of a three-day CBI workshop here.

Kumar, a 1973 batch IPS officer from Himachal Pradesh cadre, who took command of the premier investigating agency in August 2008, said the CBI felt the need to upgrade their economic offences cell after the Rs 3,000 crore Harshad Mehta securities scam in 1992.

"Although the CBI EOW was created in the year 1964, it was only after the securities scam, expansion and re-organisation of EOW was carried out and a full-fledged Economic Offences Division was established," the Director said.

Pressing for better co-ordination between the State and Central investigating agencies with regard to economic offenders, Kumar said, "The new types of economic crimes have a potential to de-stabilise the economy and the financial sector."