Poodles and Power

From vote theft in Mahadevpura to Dawood’s goons in Dethi, investigations falter when institutions bend to political pressure, leaving citizens doubting justice and accountability

- SHANTONU SEN

Investigations falter when power shields the accused and institutions bend to pressure

The other day, Rajdeep Sardesai and Yogendra Yadav were animatedly facing off on CID Karnataka’s 18 letters to the Election Commission. Not one had responded. Result: standstill investigation on the vote “chori” in Mahadevpura! Is CID really helpless? Let us examine it under the 1973 Criminal Procedure Code, now renamed. An example from my past will be helpful, not out of place.

In March 1993, ISI Pakistan, the Government of Pakistan, taking advantage of the Babri Masjid demolition (permitted and connived at by then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao), organised with deftly arranged coordination between Indian and Pakistani smugglers and some members of the corrupt airport staff in Dubai, the serial bomb blasts in then Bombay. The Commissioner of Police, Bombay, and the Special Task Force CBI (STE) (which I, as Joint Director, CBI and Special Inspector General, Special Police Establishment, headed) investigated and prosecuted the accused.

Out of nearly 185 Indians and Pakistanis named in the charge sheet, over 100 were arrested. The absconders continue to be arrested and prosecuted till recently. Dawood’ goons, even those not named as accused in the serial bomb blasts, were on the run. We and the State Police forces were hunting them.

A few years after 1993, about half a dozen of Dawood’s goons were caught by the Delhi Police. The Government of India ordered that the CBI would investigate the ramifications of their hiding in Delhi.

The CBI head was then a deputationist Indian Police Service officer, Vijay Rama Rao. Veer Sanghvi, during his tenure as Director CBI, described him as PM Narasimha Rao’s “poodle.” I, a CBI insider, had also come to the same conclusion very early on during his tenure as Director of CBI.