The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), called upon by the Supreme Court and High Courts to probe several high-profile scams, is facing a massive staff crunch.
The agency told Supreme Court that vacancies on top posts and at the level of investigating officers was staggering. The submission comes just a week after the apex court entrusted the CBI with probe into the Vyapam scam involving over 2,000 accused and the deaths of accused and witnesses related to the scam.
Ruing the lack of manpower, the CBI moved an application in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam in West Bengal, presently under the monitoring of the Supreme Court. The agency pitched for additional staff to be drawn from West Bengal Police to complete the probe.
Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar who appeared for the premier investigation agency presented the list of vacancies before a Bench headed by Justice TS Thakur. The list showed CBI is short of 12 DIGs, six Senior Superintendents of Police (SSP), 35 SPs, 23 Additional SPs, 42 DSPs and 218 Investigating officers.
The cold-feet developed by CBI to probe Saradha scam comes at a time when the court has entrusted it with the probe into the Vyapam scam relating to irregularities in the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board involving high profile persons. The agency also has its hands full with the 2G scam, coal block allocation scam, CWG scam, among other high-profile cases.
In the Saradha scam, the agency requested the court to provide about 300 constables and 10 SPs to meet the shortfall. The State Government felt that the demand was too much to bear for the State. Although it agreed to supply 200 odd constables, it was not in a position to spare SPs as it did not have many police officers of that rank in the state.
The Court asked the State Government to take instructions and respond on the CBI plea by Monday. The scam has so far named two top Trinamool leaders - suspended Member of Parliament Kunal Ghosh and former West Bengal Minister Madan Mitra.