NEW DELHI : Just a day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booked former ICICI Bank chief executive officer Chanda Kochhar for criminal conspiracy , Union Minister Arun Jaitley hit out at the probe agency for its “investigative adventurism."

Even as the Centre has been cracking down on cases of corruption in both the banking and political circuit, Jaitley’s comments on his blog raised concerns over the professional lives of bankers, which have been under the probe agency’s scanner since the Rs14,356 crore Punjab National Bank scam broke out in February 2018.

“Sitting thousands of kilometers away, when I read the list of potential targets in the ICICI case, the thought that crossed my mind was again the same – Instead of focusing primarily on the target, is a journey to nowhere (or everywhere) being undertaken? If we include the entire who’s who of the Banking Industry – with or without evidence – what cause are we serving or actually hurting," Jaitley said.

Adding that “the reason why our conviction rates are poor is that adventurism and megalomania overtakes our investigators and professionalism takes a back seat," Jaitley also sent out a message to investigators to focus on the “bulls eye" — the ultimate target.

While the agency maintained a studied silence over Jaitley’s comments, persons familiar with the development stated that the agency “would continue with its investigations irrespective of what people wrote on their personal blogs."

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