In yet another setback to the CBI in an opposition-ruled state, the Rajasthan High Court has rejected a petition seeking transfer of the investigation of REET-2021 examination paper leak case to CBI and expressed satisfaction over the free and fair inquiry by the Special Operations Group of Rajasthan police, which has not found evidence of complicity of ''influential members holding important positions in government or public life''.
The high court, in its order on February 24, also laid emphasis on maintaining the federal polity while considering transfer of investigation to CBI from state police.
The court's observations gain significance in the light of several opposition-ruled states continuing to block the premier central probe agency from taking up investigations within their jurisdictions. It is the prerogative of the state government to give a general consent to CBI or withdraw it. Over last two years, several opposition-ruled states like Rajasthan, Punjab, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Kerala had withdrawn the ''general consent'' accusing the agency of picking and choosing cases or overstepping its brief.
The crisis facing the CBI hasn't blown away clearly. In fact, it becomes starker when courts emphasise on maintaining the federal structure when it comes to the central agency taking up cases already under investigation in states.
In its detailed order, the high court said that as per the initial investigation carried out by the SOG in the REET paper leak case, it showed a systematic conspiracy and fairly widespread network which either was involved from the beginning or seems to have gained the benefit out of this leakage.
''Nevertheless, so far, we have no evidence of complicity of the influential members holding important positions in government or public life so that the investigating agency can be said to be under pressure preventing it from carrying out the investigation impartially,'' it said.
''Mere apprehensions, allegations based on unreliable as well as unverified materials and documents and on a general possibility that the investigating agency may not allowed to function freely, cannot be the grounds for taking such a serious step of transferring the investigation to a central agency,'' the court said.
The petition had been filed by the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad. But throwing the contention out of the window that police officials of the state government will not be able to bring real culprits to book, the bench took note of the fact that the SOG headed by Additional Director General of Police Ashok Rathore carried out swift investigation and arrested 26 accused and chargesheets have also been filed, even as probe continues against the absconding accused. So far, 40 accused have been arrested, among which 25 are key accused and 15 are candidates. The SOG is on the lookout for persons who were instrumental in further making the question paper available to the candidates, and those who obtained it and used it unfairly. The SOG has also recovered huge sums of money and frozen nearly Rs 18 lakh in various bank accounts of accused persons.
The paper of the REET exam which was held on September 26, 2021, was leaked two days before the examination. The case has generated a lot of political heat in the last few days as BJP leaders held a protest against the state government demanding a CBI probe into the matter.
Incidentally, the fresh order of the Rajasthan High Court also comes on the heels of the CBI recently admitting that it is facing problems in states which have withdrawn consent and the agency has failed to register around 100 high value bank fraud cases due to withdrawal of general consent by some state governments.
