Top CBI officers must be beyond suspicion: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said all officers of the CBI, particularly the top two officers, like Caesar's wife, must be beyond suspicion.

He also welcomed the Supreme Court order seeking completion of a probe into allegations against top CBI officials within two weeks.

Jaitley maintained that the recent developments have eroded the credibility of the CBI and said that the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) in the interest of fairness passed an order that till investigations are pending against two top officers of the CBI, they must step aside and recuse themselves from CBI functioning till inquiry is over.

“Today the SC has further strengthened the fairness criteria. They fixed a time limit and in order to ensure that the highest standard of fairness is maintained even in the inquiry. They have appointed a retired judge to ensure that the CVC inquiry is extremely fair,” the finance minister said.

He called the Supreme Court’s decision an “extremely positive development”.

Jaitley also justified the government’s action, that came on the recommendation of the CVC, of relieving both CBI director Alok Verma and Rakesh Asthana, special director at the agency, of their roles and said it was necessary for the "larger interest of fairness because you can't be heading an agency which is investigating into your own conduct.”