The Andhra Pradesh government on Thursday cancelled a government order which barred the Central Bureau of Investigation from conducting inquiries in various cases in the state, PTI reported. The order was issued by previous Chandrababu Naidu government.
On November 8, 2018, the state government had said that it had decided to withdraw the consent due to lack of confidence in the agency after CBI’s senior officers accused each other of corruption. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had also withdrawn permission to the central agency to function in the state.
Jaganmohan Reddy, who took over as chief minister on May 30, took the decision in a meeting last week.
Opposition parties, including Reddy’s YSR Congress, had last year criticised the government’s decision, claiming that the state government did not have the authority to pass such an order.
On Monday, in a series of tweets, YSR Congress Party General Secretary and Rajya Sabha member V Vijay Sai Reddy had said that the newly formed Andhra Pradesh government would restore the “general consent” for the CBI.
The CBI operates under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act. Section 6 of the Act mandates that the state government periodically grants consent to the agency for exercising authority in the state, according to PTI. In March 2018, Naidu had alleged that the central government had been misusing investigating agencies to attack their political rivals.
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