New Delhi: As many as 168 requests from the Central Bureau of Investigation have been pending with the Maharashtra government under Uddhav Thackeray in the last two years, the government has revealed in parliament.
Out of them, 91 were sent in the last six months of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, Indian Express has reported.
Maharashtra is the state with the highest pending requests. As many as 39 requests are pending for longer than a year and 38 for longer than six months, data presented by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions in the Rajya Sabha reveals.
This data is till June 30. It is not known whether the Maharashtra government under Eknath Shinde has given consent for investigation into any of these cases yet.
The CBI is governed by the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946. Section 6 of the DSPE Act states that no member of the Special Police Establishment shall be allowed to exercise the powers and jurisdiction afforded them by the Act without the consent of the concerned state government.
Nine states have withdrawn ‘general consent’ to the CBI to investigate cases within the state since 2015, most ruled by opposition parties. They are Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Mizoram and Meghalaya.
Bengal had comparatively fewer cases pending – a total of 27. Punjab had five pending for over six months and four for less.
Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have four, six and seven requests pending.
The government said the total amount involved in these cases was in excess of Rs 30,000 crore with Maharashtra alone accounting for Rs 29,000 crore, the Express report noted.