Friends, I had presented before you in one of my previous letters the response of CBI in a RTI query we asked from them. The matter is directly related with huge irregularities in the Commonwealth games. We present the relevant part of the letter sent under RTI on 24/05/2010- “At the same time it is also being said that the CBI assisted in the raid process and that the CBI officials were present during some of the raid operations. In this background- 1. Is this fact, i.e., CBI officials assisting or being present with the ED authorities during these raids on the Emaar-MGF company on 22/12/2009 or a week before this or after this date true? Was a raid conducted either by the ED or the CBI or by both in assistance? 2. Who were the officials from CBI who were present during the raids?” Thus it can be easily seen that the questions were directly related with CBI. All it wanted to know was whether the CBI was present along with ED during the raids done on EMAAR-MGF in December 2009 and at what places. Then on appeal we got a letter from a Joint Director of CBI dated 06/07/2010 saying that they had not received the first letter. We have sent another letter on 14/07/2010. After this we got a letter dated 03/08/2010 which says that the application has been transferred under section6(3)(II) of the RTI Act 2005 to the Director, Enforcement Directorate. And the reason- because the Enforcement Directorate has been exempted under the Second Schedule as per the provisions of section 24 of the RTI Act while the CBI is not. Thus once the question goes to ED, it can easily use the same pretext and refuse to answer the question. We had previously asked the ED also of the same questions and both its PIO and the First Appellant had refused to answer our query on the basis of the above schedule. In this way, the CBI has also tried to shield itself from providing the basic information through a jugglery. The reason for this is that after the raids done possibly by the CBI and ED in December 2009 on various premises of EMAAR-MGF, possibly no subsequent action is being taken because verypowerful people in our country are possibly involved in this matter directly. Thus the ED and the CBI are maintaining absolute silence on this matter and are trying such measures to avoid putting things on record. Thus a simple fact whether CBI conducted the raid along with ED which the CBI should have answered is being avoided because once it is admitted, everyone will have a right to ask what happened after these raids. More importantly this company is one of the important players in the Commonwealth games as well. Could there be a need for more examples about how the CBI is helping in hiding facts and aiding irregular practices? Dr Nutan Thakur, Convener, National RTI Forum, Lucknow # 94155-23425
