CBI needs to be cautious as probes tarnish reputations: Sharma

Says one should not create an environment where every bonafide decision is made suspect

Perturbed by the probe initiated by CBI against former Sebi chairman C B Bhave, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said the investigating agency should exercise great caution as such enquiries "tarnish" reputations.

"We should be very clear that any enquiry also tarnishes the reputation and destroys reputation. So there is a great caution required," Sharma told PTI when asked about his views on the Preliminary Enquiry registered by CBI against Bhave.

PE has also been registered against another former senior official of Sebi, K M Abraham, and others for alleged irregularities in the grant of licence to MCX Stock Exchange way back in 2008.

Sharma said that one should not create an environment where every bonafide decision is made suspect.

"You have to have a functional environment in the country where decision making and governance are not held to ransom. This is very, very clear that central investigative agencies have a role to play where the bonafidies of a decision are questionable for graft or pecuniary gains and not otherwise," he added.

The CBI decision to register PE against Bhave and the former official was also criticised by noted banker Deepak Parekh.

The chairman of financial sector conglomerate HDFC Group said that bureaucrats can't be blamed for not taking decisions if persons of such integrity are harassed.

The CBI move is being criticised because the enquiry has been apparently initiated on the basis of an already disposed- of Income Tax Department probe against the exchange's former promoters.

Even Bhave has said that CBI has ignored the fact that the I-T department itself did not find any merit in the case and had closed it years ago.

Former CAG Vinod Rai too has come out in support of Bhave.