The CBI on Friday questioned West Bengal Governor MK Narayanan in connection with its probe into allegations of bribery in the AgustaWestland chopper deal after legal clearance from the Centre. In his legal opinion, newly-appointed Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the Government that a Governor cannot claim Constitutional immunity from examination by the CBI or any investigating agency. At the fag end of UPA regime in May this year, then Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran had blocked any such move citing a Constitutional bar under Article 361(2).
This is the first time the CBI has questioned a Governor while he is in office. A CBI team from Delhi went to Kolkata to question Narayanan at the Raj Bhavan there. The CBI wanted to question Narayanan and Goa Governor BV Wanchoo in the AgustaWestland case. After Narayanan, Wanchoo is also likely to be examined soon.
With the NDA Government seeking a ground to recommend removal of some of the UPA-appointed Governors, the opinion of the former SG had created a roadblock in proceeding against Narayanan and Wanchoo. The duo took part in a meeting on March 1, 2005 in which specifications for the VVIP helicopter deal were significantly altered to favour AgustaWestland. Narayanan was the then National Security Advisor and Wanchoo headed the Special Protection Group then.
Against the “service ceiling” of 6,000 metres fixed by the Air Headquarters, the altitude for the helicopter to fly was changed to 4,500 metres in order to make AgustaWestland eligible for bidding.
Amid allegations of kickbacks in the deal, the CBI registered a regular case against former Air Chief SP Tyagi among others and also probed the role of the then NSA and SPG chief. To override the legal bar, the agency sought the opinion of the Attorney General recently to ascertain whether it could proceed against Narayanan and Wanchoo in order to build up a strong case.
Incidentally, the Article 361(2) said, “No criminal proceedings whatsoever shall be instituted or continued against the President or the Governor of a State, in any court during his term of office.”
Sources in the law Ministry said that the AG office informed the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to let CBI proceed with examination of the accused as this was permissible under the Constitution. “What Article 361(2) has barred is only institution of criminal proceedings,” they said, adding, “It (CBI) is free to record the statement of the accused (including a Governor) under Section 161 of CrPC.”
CBI officials dealing with the case said, “There is no bar on our questioning them (Narayanan and Wanchoo). However, they cannot be chargesheeted till they remain in office.” They clarified that the opinion would not come in the way of chargesheeting other accused.With the CBI questioning Narayanan, the evidence gathered by it could give the Government a handle to seek the removal of the Governor-- an issue dealt in detail by Supreme Court decision of 2010 in BP Singhal vs Union of India case.
The Court had observed that Governors cannot be removed with the change of a political regime for refusing to toe the line of the Centre and there should be valid reason for their removal.Sources said that Narayanan, also a former Director of the Intelligence Bureau, answered questions in two-hour long examination relating to March 1, 2005 meeting in which a decision was taken to reduce service ceiling from the 6,000 metres to 4,500 metres, agency sources said here.
The sources said Narayanan sought to justify the reduction in operational height of the choppers saying his predecessor as NSA in the NDA regime Brajesh Mishra had approved the decision to downgrade the service ceiling requirement in December 2003.