CBI to submit Bansal report to NHRC soon

Agency seeks clarification from Centre whether Delhi women’s panel can summon its officials.

The CBI will soon submit report of its internal inquiry, initiated to probe the allegations of harassment levelled by former DG corporate affairs B.K. Bansal against the agency officials, to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). Bansal, who was facing graft charges, had ended his life on September 27, nearly two months after his wife and daughter had taken a similar tragic step.

The CBI has also sought clarification from the Centre whether Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has authority to summon its official which the women panel did in the matter relating to suicide of wife and daughter of Bansal.

The DCW had asked the assistant inspector general of the agency to present himself before it in connection with the suicide committed by wife and daughter of Bansal in July this year.

Sources said while they had responded to the summons issued by the DCW, whether the panel can summon officials of a Central government investigation agency needs to be clarified. Sources said they are conducting an internal probe under a joint director who is not in a chain of command and its report will soon be submitted to the NHRC. The agency is ready to respond to questions raised by statutory bodies, but needs clarification on sending its officials on the summons issued by a body created by the state government.

Bansal was arrested by the CBI on July 16 for allegedly accepting bribe from a prominent pharma company. Three days later, his wife and daughter committed suicide. Bansal allegedly hanged himself along with his son at their residence in East Delhi on September 27, with a purported suicide note claiming “harassment” by the CBI, barely two months after his wife and daughter ended their lives following his arrest in the alleged corruption case.