PANJIM, MARCH 8
The Union ministry for personnel is yet to respond to Goa’s request for a CBI probe into the police-drug mafia nexus case.
Chief Secretary Sanjay Srivastva said the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) which functions under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself, is yet to respond to the request. Earlier, Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and senior Bharatiya Janata Party’s leader Gopinath Munde too had said that the Centre had not responded to the government’s request for a CBI probe into the drug case.
“We had written to the union ministry of personnel for handing over the drug case to the CBI weeks back. But so far haven’t received a reply from them,” Srivastava told reporters.
He said that with no reply forthcoming from the central ministry, he is forced to write to the CBI directly, requesting the federal agency to take over the investigation into the drug case in which, the Opposition and international media allege, Home Minister Ravi Naik’s son is involved.
“We are not supposed to write to the CBI directly. But with no answer forthcoming from the ministry of personnel, we were forced to take the step,” the top bureaucrat said.
Last month (Feb 18) Kamat had also told a press conference that there had been no response from the DoPT, after the state chief secretary had formally requested them to instruct the CBI to take charge of the drug probe.
“The chief secretary had written to them (DoPT), but they have not responded. We will send a reminder,” Kamat had said.
On Friday, BJP’s deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had been mum on a petition by his party seeking a CBI probe into the drug case in Goa.
