Mumbai: The Shinde-Fadnavis government is set to revoke the Maha Vikas Aghadi government’s decision to decline general consent to the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate cases in the state. Accusing the Centre of misusing Central probe agencies to target opposition leaders, the MVA government had made the decision in 2020. The proposed move by the Shinde-Fadnavis government is important, especially when it has already decided to transfer the investigation of two important cases from the Maharashtra police to the CBI.
Saying that it would no longer allow the Central Bureau of Investigation to trespass on its territory, the MVA government had, in October 2020, withdrawn the consent given to the CBI under section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946. In the wake of the state government’s decision, it was necessary for the CBI to seek the state government’s express consent to probe the TRP scam or any other. The reason assigned was that the Centre and the state, under the 60:40 formula, share funds in the form of aid or grant; therefore, the Central agency can probe matters assigned to it only.
A senior home department official told The Free Press Journal, “The new government will soon formally revoke the MVA government’s order declining the general consent to the CBI to probe the cases in the state. Already, the government has transferred two cases to the CBI. This has sent a clear signal that the government is not keen on barring the CBI from investigating various cases in the state.”
The official said that the government had asked the state police to transfer the probe into a case relating to sensitive call records allegedly leaked from the state intelligence department (SID). Mumbai Police had recorded the statement of the then Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis in the Rashmi Shukla phone-tapping case. In this case, Fadnavis had alleged that the then MVA government had ignored the special investigation team’s report of large-scale corruption in the transfer of IPS officers.
The second case was about BJP leader Girish Mahajan and 28 others, who were booked for extortion and criminal conspiracy. In this case too, Fadnavis had made serious allegations against the then MVA government, by making disclosures in the Maharashtra legislative assembly.
