CBI probe shouldn’t be ordered in routine manner: SC

Maintaining that the CBI probe should not be ordered in a routine manner, the Supreme Court has set aside a Punjab and Haryana High Court transferring the probe in a case to the CBI.

“The high courts should direct for a CBI investigation only in cases where material prima facie discloses something calling for an investigation by the Central agency. It should not be done in a routine manner or on the basis of some vague allegations," a Bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice K Vinod Chandran said in an order earlier this month. “The ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ without any definite conclusion are not sufficient to put an agency like the CBI into motion,” it said while deciding an appeal challenging the high court’s May 2024 order.

The cases relates to an FIR lodged in Panchkula in October 2022 accusing a man of impersonating an Inspector General (IG) of the Intelligence Bureau and asking the complainant to transfer Rs 1.49 crore into his account. The FIR alleged that the complainant, who had a pharmaceutical business, was coerced by the accused to work with his associates and faced extortion for money.

The complainant moved the high court seeking the transfer of probe from the state police to the CBI. The high court allowed the plea following which the accused persons moved the apex court. The top court said “vague and bald" allegations were made in the petition filed before the high court.

The main ground, it said, the complainant alleged in the high court was the police officials were acquainted with the appellant and they could also be involved in the case. The bench said these claims of the complainant were not substantiated at all.

Referring to its judgement, it said a CBI investigation should not be directed in a routine manner or only because allegations were against the local police.

The high court was perhaps moved by the assertions made by the complainant that local police officers, who would conduct the probe, were of lesser ranks and that the matter allegedly involved some high ranking officials, it said.

These allegations were vague and moreover, the commissioner, Panchkula, had constituted a three-member special investigation team under the chairmanship of an assistant commissioner of police for investigation, the top court said.

Haryana Tribune