2200 Officials Were Under CBI Surveillance As Graft Suspect

New Delhi: CBI has kept 2,200 senior central government officials under surveillance for suspected corruption during the last one year and has registered FIR against 101, agency chief Anil Sinha said in New Delhi on Wednesday.

In a rare informal interaction with journalists, Mr Sinha said registration of cases from surveillance has increased by 94 per cent from 2014 when CBI had registered only 52 cases to 101 cases this year.

The agency lodged the cases after it came to the light during its monitoring that the concerned officers had demanded bribe to grant favours.

Talking about the performance of the central agency, Mr Sinha who has completed 14-months as chief, said CBI has managed to file 1,044 charge sheets this year which is the highest by the agency during the last five years.

"Mood of the public is against corruption. If CBI will not side with them, who will?," Mr Sinha said, adding that the agency has registered cases against 67 officials amassing disproportionate assets which is also an increase of 56 per cent as compared to 2014.

On the international front, CBI claimed to have achieved phenomenal success as it completed 62 international operations (cases where one part is investigated outside) with 42 fugitives being brought back to face law in the country which is also an increase of 91 per cent in 2014 when only 22 such absconders were deported or extradited, Singh, buoyed by the deportation of gangster Chhota Rajan, said.

When asked about constraints faced by the agency, Mr Sinha said shortage of staff is a major concern as states are not ready to relieve officers for Central deputation.

"At the cutting edge levels which is--DIG, SP, DySP--the staff crunch is at critical levels. Earlier one official used to handle one case now they are solving three or four cases at a time which is putting pressure on them," he said.

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