What steps have you taken to strengthen prosecution unit, remove deficiencies: SC to CBI

New Delhi: Observing that the “success rate” in cases taken up by the CBI is perceived low, the Supreme Court has asked the premier central investigating agency to identify the bottlenecks and apprise it of the steps that have been taken to strengthen its prosecution unit.

A bench comprising justices S K Kaul and M M Sundresh directed the CBI director to file an affidavit within six weeks before it stating the number of cases in which the agency was successful in getting accused convicted in trial courts and high courts.

It asked the CBI director to inform it about the steps taken or proposed to be taken to address the inadequacies in manpower, infrastructure facility and the quality of investigation.

“There is a common perception that the success rate of the cases taken on file is rather low. Thus, we call upon the petitioners to place the year-wise data on the cases under prosecution, the time period over which they are pending before the trial courts and the percentage of conviction rendered by the courts at different-level,” the bench said.

The top court”s direction came while hearing an appeal by CBI against advocates Mohammad Altaf Mohand and Sheikh Mubarak challenging a 2018 order of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in a case of allegedly fabricating/creating false evidence by pressuring, inducing and threatening the eye-witnesses to make false depositions implicating the police/security personnel in the commission of offences of rape and murder of the two women in Shopian.

The appeal was filed after an inordinate delay of 542 days.