New Delhi, Apr 5: President Pranab Mukherjee will inaugurate the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Central Bureau Investigation on Saturday and deliver a lecture on ‘Good Governance - Empowering Institutions, Society and Public.'
He will also unveil Golden Jubilee logo and present the President's Police Medals for Distinguished Services besides the DP Kohli Award for the Best Detective Constable of the agency.
The agency had come into being on April 1, 1963 through a Home Ministry notification which converted erstwhile Special Police Establishment into CBI as need was felt for it to not only probe bribery and vigilance cases but also those panning across state and national boundaries.
The CBI which has become a central point of political debate on its alleged misuse by ruling parties has lined up a series of events spread over the year 2013-14 to celebrate its Golden Jubilee.
Mr. Mukherjee will also honour former Directors of CBI.
“The prestigious DP Kohli Memorial lecture is organised annually by the CBI in the honour of its founder Director. Late Kohli was the Head of Special Police Establishment and Central Bureau of Investigation from 1955 to 1968,” the CBI spokesperson said in a statement.
The agency will also identify future challenges and formulate a plan to build capacity to meet these.
The CBI plans to hold an international anti-corruption meet later this year, it said.
During 50 years of its existence, CBI has evolved as a multi-faceted agency probing wide variety of cases from communal clashes, special crimes, aircraft hijacking, fake currency, wildlife crimes, human trafficking to assassinations and large scale corruption cases.
“With the passage of time, requests were made by various quarters for CBI to take up investigation in crimes like assassinations, kidnappings, hijackings, crimes committed by extremists, violation of Official Secrets Act, large scale bank and insurance frauds, and, specific cases like Bhagalpur blinding and Bhopal Gas Tragedy,” the spokesperson said.
She said as on date, offences under 74 existing Central and 19 State Acts and 243 offences under the Indian Penal Code have been notified by the Central Government under section 3 of the DSPE Act.
Despite praise from various quarters, CBI has been accused of being the tool of ruling parties as Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav recently raked up the issue of CBI allegedly being used by the ruling party against opposition.
“It's not easy to fight with the government. It has thousands of hands and can use CBI and put one in jail,” he had said.
The allegations of misuse of CBI were strongly refuted by Minister of Personnel V Narayanasamy.
“This has been a political issue raised by various parties. In our government, we have never, ever misused our authority or position for the purpose of arm twisting any of our alliances. The CBI has been functioning independently,” he said.
