BJP MPs meet president over CBI 'misuse'

The delegation was led by BJP parliamentary board's chairman L.K. Advani and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj.

"We have also been in power but never misused the CBI. It has become the working style of the Congress to get a clean chit from CBI to their leaders, corner opposition leaders and dangle it like a threat over those leaders who fall in between, to get their support,” Sushma Swaraj told reporters after the meeting.

"Our main point was that the CBI should remain impartial in its investigations. It has become a weapon in the hands of the Congress," she said, adding that the party will raise the issue during the monsoon session of parliament "as this (budget) session is getting over today (Friday)".

The memorandum alleges that the CBI provides cover to accused attached to the ruling UPA while it acts in "vindictive" manner if the accused is from an opposition party.
"If the case relates to a political party which can come to the aid of the UPA, a sword must hang on its leaders so that the CBI can act as a bargaining counter between that party and the UPA," it said.

The BJP has been accusing the Congress-led UPA of pressurising opposition parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Rashtriya Janta Dal and the Samajwadi Party for supporting the government during the cut motions moved by the BJP and the Left.
"The CBI has lost its investigative integrity. It has become a political arm of the ruling party. The CBI has been used to strike political bargains with opposition parties during the trust vote of 2008 and the cut motions in 2010. Today, the CBI is being used to harass senior leaders of the NDA and other Opposition parties," the memorandum said.
The BJP also accused the central government for misusing the CBI in the Sohrabuddin encounter case by targeting several police officers of the state. Sohrabuddin Sheikh was killed in an alleged fake gunfight Nov 26, 2005, in Ahmedabad in the BJP-ruled Gujarat.
"Today the state of Gujarat is witnessing the tyranny of the CBI with a systematic effort being made to harass the functionaries of the state government, particularly police officers, in order to intimidate them and take vindictive action against them,"  the memorandum said.

"This is being done in cases which have already been investigated by the Special Investigative Team set up by the Supreme Court. The attempt of the CBI is to create false cases on the strength of political instructions of the UPA," it added.