Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
According to a referral from the Union Home Ministry, the agency had filed a complaint against Mr. Sisodia and 14 other people on August 17, 2022. Image Source: IANS
Mr. Sisodia was previously summoned by the investigating agency on February 19. However, he had not appeared before CBI earlier as he sought more time stating that he was finalising the budget of Delhi.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday, February 26, 2023 after being questioned for more than seven hours in connection with a case involving alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped 2021–22 Delhi excise policy. Mr. Sisodia was previously summoned by the investigating agency on February 19. However, he had not appeared before CBI earlier as he sought more time stating that he was finalising the budget of Delhi. The arrest of the Delhi Deputy CM is being heavily criticised by the leaders of different political parties across the country. One of the reasons behind criticsing his arrest is the low conviction rate in CBI cases.
The CBI headquarters was fully barricaded and had numerous police officers on duty before the interrogation began. They detained about 50 AAP workers and members who had congregated in the area to plan a protest. These included Sanjay Singh, a Rajya Sabha member, Gopal Rai, a minister in Delhi Government, three MLAs, and one former MLA.
According to a referral from the Union Home Ministry, the agency had filed a complaint against Mr. Sisodia and 14 other people on August 17, 2022. According to the allegations, the L-1 (wholesaler) license was extended without the consent of the competent authority, the license price was waived or decreased, and the excise policy was altered to give license holders unfair favours. The CBI raided Manish Sisodia’s residence along with three other leaders of the AAP. Later, the Enforcement Directorate registered a case of money laundering in the Delhi Excise Policy.
Manish Sisodia was sent to CBI remand till March 4 by the Rouse Avenue Court in New Delhi. Later, the AAP had approached the Supreme Court on Tuesday which refused to entertain Sisodia’s petition challenging his arrest and CBI custody, leading to his resignation from the post of Deputy Chief Minister.
Manish Sisodia’s arrest by the CBI has once again highlighted the low conviction rate in the cases registered by the CBI. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), functioning under Dept. of Personnel, Ministry of Personnel, and Pension & Public Grievances is the premier investigating police agency in India. The Central Vigilance Commission which is the apex vigilance institution, monitoring all vigilance activity under the Central Government published a report which sheds light on the conviction rate of the CBI. The CBI registered 680 regular cases and 67 preliminary enquiries in 2021, while it had registered 589 regular cases and 87 preliminary enquiries in 2020. This shows that the investigating agency has registered more cases in 2021 as compared to 2020.
The chart below shows the conviction rate of CBI over the years.
Source: Central Vigilance Commission
The conviction rate of CBI witnessed a massive fall in the year 2015 as the agency’s conviction rate fell down from 69 percent in 2014 to 65 percent in 2015. Post 2015, CBI’s conviction rate witnessed a consistent rise till 2020. The year 2020 saw the highest conviction rate by the CBI. The conviction rate recorded in that year was 69.8 percent which was highest in last ten years but 2021 tells a different story as the conviction rate of CBI declined to 67.5 percent which is the lowest in last four years. In September 2021, the Supreme Court had ruled that the CBI was required to make sure that prosecution was carried out in addition to filing a case and conducting an investigation. It had rejected the CBI's argument that the success percentage of a lawsuit shouldn't be taken into account when evaluating its effectiveness in a country with an adversarial legal system like India. The low conviction rate signals that the irregularities in the investigation agency and the Indian judicial system too. Therefore, it is necessary for an investigating agency like CBI to maintain and increase its conviction rate in the majority of the cases.
