Missing Gold And CBI's 'Prestige
By Ashwini Agarwal
First publised on 2020-12-12 11:02:42
About the Author
The CBI is giving a strange logic for the shortfall of about 103kg gold valued at Rs 45cr from its custody. It says that while the weighing, when seized, was done for the whole consignment that was seized, individual items were weighed and handed over to liquidator, creating the discrepancy. Is the CBI tying to say that the sum total of all weighed together will not match with the sum total of all items weighed individually? What kind of logic is this?
The case became public knowledge as the Madras High Court ordered a probe in the incident. The probe is to be conducted by the Tamil Nadu CB-CID. The CBI had seized 400.5kg of bullion and jewelry in 2012 when it raided the offices of Surana Corporation Limited (SCL) in Chennai. The seized items were stored in the safes and vaults of SCL under CBI's lock and seal, as is the usual practice. The keys were then handed over to the Chennai principal special court for CBI cases as per protocol.
Now, when the official liquidator appointed for the settlement of debts between SCL and the State Bank of India (SBI) took custody of the gold for valuation and sale to settle the debts, it was found that 103kg was missing. This is a serious lapse and the Madras High Court rightly took the decision to have the state CID probe the matter. The CBI objected saying that it would lower its prestige if the state police was to probe it. But the judge rightly said that "law does not sanction such an inference. All policemen must be trusted, and it does not lie in the mouth of one to say that CBI have special horns, whereas, local police have only a tail".
Since the gold has gone missing from CBI custody, it is better to have an independent inquiry. Also, since it happened in Tamil Nadu, the state police are best placed to probe the matter. If the CBI is so concerned about its "prestige", why is giving such specious excuses? Why has it not moved on its own to find out what exactly happened and who is responsible for such discrepancy? The state police must probe the matter in a fair manner and bring the culprits to book for it is obvious that it is not a case of difference in weighing but is something more serious and criminal.
