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New Delhi: A parliamentary committee yesterday recommended that the government give urgent statutory backing to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) so that it could take on cases independently, especially in the current climate of high-tech crime and new age terror.
Suggesting that the CBI be armed with powers like the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the US, the panel asserted that it was high time this idea was translated into action instead of being debated endlessly.
In the light of threat levels posed by organised crime and terror groups, the committee headed by E.M. Sudarsana Natchiappan has suggested the CBI be also envisaged as an enforcement agency which would mean that apart from investigation and prosecution it would be given a mandate to ensure prevention of crimes.
"The committee recommends that a separate anti-terrorism division should be created in the CBI. The committee regrets that no proactive steps have so far been taken in this regard in spite of strong recommendations," the panel said.
"The committee strongly opines that unless CBI is suitably empowered statutorily, it cannot investigate cases and take it to its logical conclusion."
Considering that the CBI has been in high demand especially when state police forces fail in their duty, the committee felt an already overburdened CBI had its hands full.
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