The fear factor: An overzealous CBI could cramp decision-making in banks

Such over-vigilance is likely to have a debilitating impact on the decision-making process in Indian banks, especially in the state-owned ones

The first line of the Central Bureau of Investigation’s mission statement delineates its task as upholding the Constitution of India and the law of the land “through in-depth investigation and successful prosecution of offences”. The wide ambit of the country’s premier investigative agency’s responsibilities and its storied lack of independence from the ruling dispensation of the day has created an institution whose remit ranges from political corruption to corporate fraud, much of it at the behest of whichever regime is in power. At the best of times, then, the CBI’s investigations, especially through the dreaded, open-ended preliminary enquiry, can have