Centre trashes Mamata Banerjee's charge, says CBI functioning in 'absolute transparency'
Banerjee had recently dared Prime Minister to send her hundreds of CBI notices
New Delhi: Rejecting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's charge that CBI was targeting her at the behest of the Centre, the government has said the probe agency functions in "absoloute transparency" under the Modi dispensation.
"There is nothing to suggest that CBI has been used or misused in the last 12 months of the Narendra Modi government. There is absolute transparency in the working of CBI," Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh has said.
"The government is trying to ensure that CBI becomes more independent, more transparent, more autonomous and has the confidence to exercise its powers in a judicious and impartial manner so it can fulfil the purpose and objective for which it was established," Singh, whose ministry acts as the nodal authority for CBI for administrative work, told PTI in an interview.
Banerjee had recently dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to send her hundreds of CBI notices and alleged that BJP was trying to "stifle" Trinamool Congress voice for protesting against his "anti-people" policies including the Land Acquisition Bill.
She had told an election rally that whoever will speak against Narendra Modi, he will send the person a notice. It is his work. I am not afraid of him. I know how to fight."
The CBI, which is probing the Saradha scam, had sent a notice to Mamata Banerjee's party Trinamool Congress seeking details of income and expenditure between 2010 and 2013.
"That you should ask her why she thinks so. Otherwise on the ground there is no evidence to say that we have done things like that. Or we have unleashed CBI against any government for that matter, whether it is West Bengal government or any other," the Minister said.
Mamata had also recently alleged that CBI takes up only those cases which "suit it politically", while showing no interest in others.
"They do what suits them politically. I had a penchant for seeking CBI probe into incidents but it is changing now," she had told the state assembly on Tuesday.
Referring to the perception that the premier investigative agency was used by the governments of the day to target political adversaries, Singh said," C in CBI stood for Congress Bureau of Investigation."