Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu | Photo Credit: BCCL

New Delhi: The tussle between the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Andhra Pradesh government intensified late on Friday night after the former issued a statement accusing the Chandrababu Naidu government of not allowing it to lay a trap against a central government official who had allegedly sought a bribe. The probe agency said that such an attitude would “make the fight against corruption difficult”.

The CBI claimed that instead of its consent to the probe agency to proceed with the case, the state government purportedly shared the “confidential” information with its Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) which then laid the trap to nab the accused official. Notably, on November 8, the Andhra government had withdrawn the general consent given to the CBI to act against central government officials working under the state government’s jurisdiction, citing lack of trust in CBI after its officials were accused in scams in the recent past.

In a statement issued late on Friday night, the central probe agency said that a Machilipatnam resident had written to the Visakhapatnam unit of the CBI on November 28 to complaint about a superintendent-rank official working with Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) who had allegedly sought a bribe of Rs 35,000 for not raising objections pertaining to the CGST returns filed by the firm of the complainant. 'States don't have sovereignty in matter ': Arun Jaitley on AP, WB restricting CBI's access

The CBI said that immediately upon receiving the complaint, the superintendent of police, CBI, sent a “top secret” letter addressed to the state principal secretary (home), which was delivered by hand by a DSP rank officer of CBI. As per the probe agency, the letter was delivered to the principal secretary in the afternoon.

The CBI statement read, “In the letter, it was requested to issue specific consent to CBI to lay a trap in this particular complaint. It was also requested to keep the information strictly confidential and not to share the information with any other party.”

On November 29, the CBI SP personally called on the principal secretary at her office at Velagapudy, asking her for an early action on their request for issuing specific consent, the CBI said. The probe agency requires the special consent of the state government under section 6 of DSPE Act to enable the CBI to register the case against the accused official and lay a trap to nab him, in view of the Andhra government’s withdrawal of general consent. After Chandrababu Naidu clips CBI's wings in AP, Mamata Banerjee follows suit in West Bengal

The agency added in its statement that it sent another letter to the principal secretary with a copy marked to the chief secretary on Friday for their immediate response on the issue. However, the agency claimed the state government did not give the required consent to the CBI.

It said, “Instead the details were shared by the home department with state Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and state ACB laid a trap on the November 30 evening against the above central government public servant by using the contents of the above request letter. Further, state ACB also issued a press release as if the complainant has directly approached them.”

“CBI deeply regrets such non-cooperation by the State Home Department in this matter. This will only make the fight against corruption more difficult for the anti-corruption agencies and the mutual trust between the agencies will be vitiated,” the statement by the probe agency said. It added that corruption can be eradicated only through mutual cooperation and trust.



