Govt to set up task force to probe criminal-politician nexus

The Inder Kumar Gujral government has decided to set up a special task force to probe the politician-bureaucrat-criminal nexus in the country.

This is the first follow-up action undertaken by the Centre on the much-publicised Vohra Committee report that looked into the politician-bureaucrat-criminal links.

As the government has been sitting on the report for the last three years, the Supreme Court asked the Centre on March 20 to immediately constitute an expert group to investigate the links.

Government sources said the initiative to set up the task force came from the author of the report -- Narendra Nath Vohra who took charge as the prime minister's principal secretary on July 1 -- himself.

Earlier this week, following a request made by Gujral, Home Minister Indrajit Gupta discussed the report with Vohra and other top officials like Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramanian, Home Secretary K Padmanabhaiah, CBI Director R C Sharma and IB Director Arun Bhagat.

The meeting decided to set up a core group of top officials who will prepare the broad guidelines for constituting the task force.

While Vohra, Subramanian, Padmanabhaiah and the revenue secretary will frame the modalities of the special task force, the CBI and IB chiefs along with top officials of the Research and Analysis Wing and the Enforcement Directorate will decide on its operational aspects.

An official in the Cabinet secretariat said the task force will comprise men from the CBI, the IB, the RAW, the ED and other police agencies. It will be headed by a police officer of the rank of inspector general of police.

The force, the first and the most important agency that will investigate the links between politicians and criminals, will directly report to the home secretary.

But top police officials doubt if the force will enjoy functional independence considering the criminal background of several top political leaders.

However, Gujral's initiative is considered a bold step as breaking the criminal-politician nexus was one of the main promises of the United Front coalition government's Common Minimum Programme.

Vohra's report, submitted to then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao in 1994, said some political leaders in the country had become mafia leaders. 'Such elements have acquired considerable clout, seriously jeopardising the smooth functioning of the administration and the safety of life and property of the common man,' the report said.