A species of bird could well be the answer for the CBI’s woes

Now that a certain feisty bird has solved a murder in Agra this week, the Supreme Court may want to reconsider its withering characterisation of the Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI) as a “caged parrot speaking in his master’s voice” due to the agency’s inaction on the coal block allocation imbroglio last year. Clearly, single-minded application of “ze leetle grey cells” by Heera-cules Parrot (pun intended) —whether caged or otherwise — led the foxed local police to the murderer of a housewife and her pet dog: her nephew.


As a shrewd, if inconspicuous observer, the parrot must be commended for not being misled as the police were, into suspecting the milkman. Indeed, far from being swayed by his master’s voice, he reacted to precisely that — the bereaved but unsuspecting gentleman called out his nephew’s name —to direct the police to the perpetrator.

There is every chance that without Heera’s intervention, this case too may have remained unsolved like so many others in India. Given the seminal role played by Monsieur Parrot in getting the murderer to confess, the Supreme Court could consider directing the CBI to co-opt many of these clever birds into their ranks. Nor would that ruffle any feathers as the agency’s director, Ranjit Sinha, has already affirmed its status as an incarcerated psittacine.