Plea in SC: Turn CVC into Lokpal to free CBI from govt

Senior Journalist Vineet Narain, who is known for his public interest litigation in the famous Jain Hawala Case, has written to the Supreme Court in the wake of the Coalgate scam, and advocated turning the present Chief Vigilance Commission (CVC) into a Lokpal and making the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) exclusively responsible to that body. [caption id=“attachment_749851” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] In his written submission to the Supreme Court, Narain argued that the CBI could never remain unbiased in any important investigations, whether it was Jain Hawala case or Coalgate. He suggested thus, that an amendment be made in the CVC Act to make it a five-to-seven-member body, including a retired judge of the Supreme Court. According to Narain, other members should be drawn from IAS, IPS, Banking and Engineering services and include a long serving MP to provide expertise and understanding of high-level corruptions in cases like the Commonwealth games. Further, in his submission Narain argued that the CVC should have an advisory committee of at least 11 members drawn from criminology and forensic fields. Narain submitted his recommendations following the Supreme Court’s observation in the ongoing Coalgate tussle that the CBI should be freed from the political executive.   Other suggestions were as follows: * The CVC-turned Lokpal should not require any government permission to launch an investigation or file a chargesheet against a senior official. * The CVC-turned Lokpal will recommend cases for investigations to CBI, which should be functionally and financially independent of any control of the government. * The CBI Director’s appointment should be transparent, laws relating to the whistleblowers and grievance redressal should be placed with the CVC