Madras HC calls CBI a caged parrot, says SFIO also has political masters

New Delhi: While hearing a plea raising concerns of the Economic Offences Wing in Tamil Nadu not having enough technically-sound personnel to investigate allegations of embezzlement in the Franklin Templeton case, the Madras High Court on Monday came down heavily on the country's central probe agencies — referring to the Central Bureau of Investigation as a "caged parrot".

Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee, while hearing the case, also made remarks about the quality of officers in the Enforcement Directorate and said that while the Serious Fraud Investigations Office (SFIO) does excellent work, it is also subject to orders from political masters.

"We have an SFIO, which does excellent work, but subject to orders of political masters... We have a CBI, which is not anything more than a caged parrot... What is the brief of the ED? Some of the agencies... have excellent personnel," Justice Banerjee said.

On Monday, the court also heard submissions that the ED had also registered an embezzlement case against Franklin Templeton, at which point the judge recalled the ineptitude of investigating officers probing large fraud cases in the past.

The court was informed that the ED was now headed by an IRS officer as the government had felt the need in light of certain cases having technical aspects to be probed. Before adjourning the matter till April 19, the court added the SEBI and the ED as parties to the matter.

The state is at the next date expected to file a list of measures that can be taken to ensure specialised training of EOW officers.