Corruption In 2013, Judge of the
Supreme Court of India (and later
Chief Justice of India)
R. M. Lodha criticized the CBI for being a "caged parrot speaking in its master's voice", due to its excessive political interference irrespective of which party happened to be in power. Because of the CBI's political overtones, it has been exposed by former officials such as Joginder Singh and B. R. Lall (director and joint director, respectively) as engaging in nepotism, wrongful prosecution and corruption. In Lall's book,
Who Owns CBI, he details how investigations are manipulated and derailed. Corruption within the organisation has been revealed in information obtained under the RTI Act, and RTI activist Krishnanand Tripathi has alleged harassment from the CBI to save itself from exposure via RTI. The states that have withdrawn consent to the CBI have accused the CBI of being a tool used by the Central Government to unfairly target parties ideologically rivaling them. It has also been criticized for dragging its feet investigating prominent politicians, such as
P. V. Narasimha Rao,
J. Jayalalithaa,
Lalu Prasad Yadav,
Mayawati and
Mulayam Singh Yadav; this tactic leads to their acquittal or non-prosecution.
Bofors scandal In January 2006 it was discovered that the CBI had quietly unfrozen bank accounts belonging to Italian businessman
Ottavio Quattrocchi, one of those accused in the 1986
Bofors scandal which tainted the government of
Rajiv Gandhi. The CBI was responsible for the inquiry into the Bofors case. Associates of then-prime minister Rajiv Gandhi were linked to alleged payoffs made during the mid-1980s by Swedish arms firm AB Bofors, with US millionin kickbacks moved from Britain and Panama to secret Swiss banks. The 410
howitzers purchased in the US million arms sale were reported to be inferior to those offered by a French competitor. The CBI, which unfroze in a London bank in accounts held by Bofors, accused Quattrocchi and his wife Maria in 2006 but facilitated his travel by asking Interpol to take him off its wanted list on 29 April 2009. After communications from the CBI, Interpol withdrew the
Interpol notice on Quattrocchi.
Hawala scandal A 1991 arrest of militants in Kashmir led to a raid on
hawala brokers, revealing evidence of large-scale payments to national politicians. The Jain hawala case encompassed former Central ministers Ajit Kumar Panja and P. Shiv Shankar, former Uttar Pradesh governor Motilal Vora, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha. The 20 defendants were discharged by Special Judge V. B. Gupta in the 650-million case, heard in New Delhi. The judge ruled that there was no
prima facie evidence against the accused which could be converted into legal evidence. Those freed included Bharatiya Janata Party president L. K. Advani; former Central ministers V. C. Shukla, Arjun Singh, Madhavrao Scindia, N. D. Tiwari and R. K. Dhawan, and former Delhi chief minister Madan Lal Khurana. In 1997 a ruling by late
Chief Justice of India J. S. Verma listed about two dozen guidelines which, if followed, would have ensured the independence of the investigating agency. Sixteen years later, successive governments circumvent the guidelines and treat the CBI as another wing of the government. Although the prosecution was prompted by a public-interest petition, the cases concluded with no convictions. In
Vineet Narain & Others v Government of India AIR 1996 SC 3386, the Supreme Court ruled that the
Central Vigilance Commission should have a supervisory role over the CBI.
Priyadarshini Mattoo murder case In this case Santosh Kumar Singh, the alleged murderer of a 25-year-old law student, was acquitted for what the judge called "deliberate inaction" by the investigating team. The accused was the son of a high-ranking officer in the Indian Police Service, the reason for the CBI's involvement. The 1999 judgment noted that "the influence of the father of the accused has been there". Embarrassed by the judgment, CBI Director R. K. Raghavan appointed two special directors (P. C. Sharma and Gopal Achari) to study the judgement. The CBI appealed the verdict in Delhi High Court in 2000, and the court issued a warrant for the accused. The CBI applied for an early hearing in July 2006; in October the High Court found Singh guilty of rape and murder, sentencing him to death.
Sister Abhaya This case concerns 27 March 1992 death of a
nun who was found in a
water well in the Saint Pius X convent hostel in
Kottayam, Kerala. Five CBI investigations have failed to yield any suspects. The case was solved finally in December 2020 where the Main Accused were sentenced to life imprisonment by The Kerala High Court.
Sohrabuddin case In 2010, the Supreme Court transferred to the CBI the investigation into the alleged 2005 fake encounter killing of
Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kauser Bi, and witness
Tulsiram Prajapati by Gujarat Police. The CBI arrested then Gujarat Minister of State for Home
Amit Shah in July 2010 on charges of murder and conspiracy; Shah received bail in October 2010 and was formally discharged by a special CBI court in December 2014 for lack of evidence. Gujarat CID officer
Geeta Johri alleged in 2010 that the CBI was pressuring her to falsely implicate Shah, claiming the probe was politically motivated by the Congress-led central government against the BJP-ruled Gujarat government. In December 2018, a special CBI court in Mumbai acquitted all 22 accused (including senior police officers), citing insufficient evidence and hostile witnesses. In October 2025, the CBI informed the
Bombay High Court that it would not challenge the acquittals.
Sant Singh Chatwal case Sant Singh Chatwal was a suspect in CBI records for 14 years. The agency had filed two charge sheets, sent
Letters rogatory abroad and sent a team to the United States to imprison Chatwal and his wife from 2–5 February 1997. On 30 May 2007 and 10 August 2008 former CBI directors Vijay Shankar and Ashwani Kumar, respectively, signed no-challenge orders on the imprisonment. Later, it was decided not to appeal their release. This closed a case of bank fraud in which Chatwal had been embroiled for over a decade. Along with four others, Chatwal was charged with being part of a "criminal conspiracy" to defraud the Bank of India's New York branch of . Four charges were filed by the CBI, with Chatwal named a defendant in two. The other two trials are still in progress. RTI applicant Krishnanand Tripathi was denied access to public information concerning the closed cases. The
Central Information Commission later ordered the CBI to disclose the information; however, the CBI is exempt from the RTI Act (see
above). Chatwal is a recipient of the
Padma Bhushan.
Malankara Varghese murder case This case concerns 5 December 2002 death of T. M. Varghese (also known as Malankara Varghese), a member of the
Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church managing committee and a timber merchant. Varghese Thekkekara, a priest and manager of the Angamali diocese of the rival
Jacobite Syrian Christian Church (part of the
Syriac Orthodox Church), was charged with murder and conspiracy on 9 May 2010. Thekkekara was not arrested after he was charged, for which the CBI was criticised by the
Kerala High Court and the media.
Bhopal gas tragedy The CBI was publicly seen as ineffective in trying the 1984 Bhopal disaster case. Former CBI joint director B. R. Lall has said that he was asked to remain soft on extradition for Union Carbide CEO
Warren Anderson and drop the charges (which included
culpable homicide). Those accused received two-year sentences.
2G spectrum case The
UPA government has been accused of allocating 2G spectrum to corporations at very low prices through corrupt and illegal means. The Supreme Court cited the CBI many times for its tardiness in the investigations; only after the court began monitoring its investigations were high-profile arrests made.
Indian coal allocation scam This is a political scandal concerning the Indian UPA government's allocation of the nation's coal deposits to private companies by the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which cost the government . CBI director
Ranjit Sinha submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court that the coal-scam status report prepared by the agency was shared with Congress Party law minister
Ashwani Kumar "as desired by him" and with secretary-level officers from the prime minister's office (PMO) and the coal ministry before presenting it to the court.
2008 Noida double murder case This is a double murder case of 14-year-old girl Aarushi Talwar and 45-year-old Hemraj Banjade from
Noida, India. On 26 November 2013, parents of the girl, Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders. In January 2014, the Talwars challenged the decision in the
Allahabad High Court. The High Court's acquitted them of all charges on 12 October 2017 because of the lack of 'irresistible proof'. The Allahabad HC in its verdict said that there were loopholes in the evidence which found the parents not guilty. Court also said that CBI tampered with evidence and tutored witnesses. Questions arose by nation on investigation and judgement given by CBI court.
2024 Kolkata rape and murder case This is a rape and murder case of a 31-year-old female post-graduate trainee doctor at the
R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in
Kolkata, India. On 13 December 2024, the former
R. G. Kar principal
Sandip Ghosh and the station house officer of the Tala Police Station Abhijit Mondal were granted bail by the Sealdah Court in
Kolkata for
destruction of evidence in the
2024 Kolkata rape and murder case as the CBI failed to file a chargesheet against Ghosh and Mondal within a span of 90 days. This has led to a widespread outrage as the victim's parents were not satisfied with the CBI investigation stating that evidence had been destroyed by Ghosh and Mondal.
Political repression Several opposition parties in India have alleged that under the present government's rule, CBI is increasingly being used as a tool for political repression. 14 opposition parties filed a plea in Supreme Court in this regard. However it was junked on April 5, 2023. ==In popular culture==