On last day, Sinha defends actions

Acknowledging that he was leaving the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a “trail of controversy”, outgoing Director Ranjit Sinha on Tuesday defended several of his moves to overturn the conclusions of his juniors in controversial cases, while warning against attempts from various quarters to wreck the system.

In a two-page farewell note to colleagues on his last day in office, Sinha said the agency's success story rested on procedural discipline based on liberty to dissent.

“All ranks are expected to record their views, and the final opinion of the competent rank becomes an organisational decision. Compromising on this basic tenet of functioning would rob the organisation of its unique character. We have amongst us the best of the Indian Police, and I am sanguine that the tradition will follow despite attempts from various quarters to wreck the system,” he said.

These remarks are being seen as his response to allegations that he went against the decisions of the Investigation Officers, other senior officers and even CBI counsel in the 2G spectrum, coal block allocation and Aircel-Maxis deal cases.

Emphasising that working in the premier investigation agency was a supreme challenge, he said the CBI was expected to not just be the best but also appear so too.

“We live in an age of instant gratification in a digitally networked world. Our work protocols chalked out in the CBI Crime Manual are for a pre-digital age. The public expect the time gap between initiation of an investigation to the delivery of judgment to be shorter. We need greater velocity in decision-making without compromising on quality,” he said.

Speaking about his controversial tenure, he said the events that unfolded in the last few months would continue to be debated. “In fact, I am leaving in a trail of controversy,” he said in an apparent reference to the recent Supreme Court order asking him to recuse from the 2G case probe.