The Hindu : Not influencing CBI: PM

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 06, 2003

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Not influencing CBI: PM

By Javed M. Ansari

NEW DELHI AUG. 5. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, today denied the Opposition charge that his Government was trying to influence the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to ``drop'' the conspiracy charge against the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, and his other colleagues. ``Even though cases in the Ayodhya matter are pending against some of my own colleagues, we have neither withdrawn those cases nor taken steps to interfere with the functioning of the CBI,'' he said.

Replying to a discussion in the Lok Sabha on the working of the investigative agencies, specially the CBI, Mr. Vajpayee, in his reply, told the Lok Sabha that the Government had done nothing to influence the investigation. The CBI was an autonomous body and ``had the full authority to take any decision'' with the regard to the investigations in the Ayodhya case.

The Prime Minister said the CBI had the powers to proceed with any case in a manner that it deemed fit. ``It is not subject to the control of the Government, and this is also true of the Ayodhya case.''

Refuting that the CBI had been ``forced to drop the conspiracy charge against Mr. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi,'' Mr. Vajpayee said that it was for the CBI to decide how to proceed in the case. ``Who is to be prosecuted, and under what section, is for the CBI to decide, the investigative agencies have full independence to proceed in the manner they want, no one can interfere.''

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