Thaindian News

New Delhi, December 26 (IANS) Team Anna member and senior advocate Prashant Bhushan reiterated Monday that if the CBI remained under the government control, the entire objective of the Lokpal bill would be defeated.

“The ojective of the Lokpal is to have an independent probe agency which is not manipulated by any other power. If the investigating agency remains under government control, then the whole idea is defeated. Therefore, we are saying that it must be taken out of government’s ambit and brought under the administrative control of Lokpal.”

Bhushan said that if the government wanted to retain the CBI, then the Lokpal should be allowed to set up its own investigating machinery through which it could get to all corruption cases under investigation.

He also said that the division of jurisdiction of Lokpal creates confusion. In some cases one would not be able to identify from where to conduct the investigation, if one did not know who was involved, he added.

“For the same act of corruption, both lower and higher level of employees could be involved. If jurisdiction is not divided, then the lower employee will come under the CVC while the higher will be under Lokpal,” Bhushan said.

Team Anna member Kiran Bedi said India needed an investigating agency which was not manipulated by government or any political power.

“We need an independent, investigating agency. Many political parties have cleared their stand that the CBI has been used by the government,” Bedi said.