The Law Ministry did not interfere with the CBI's investigation into the murder of Aarushi Talwar, but only requested the agency to take a re-look at the case in view of the public sentiment after the closure report was filed, Union Minister for Law and Justice M. Veerappa Moily clarified on Sunday.
The Law Ministry could not give any directive to the CBI, as it was an independent agency, he said, talking to journalists after attending an alumni meeting of the Visvesvaraya College of Engineering here.
“I convened a meeting of CBI officials in the wake of the public sentiment and requested the CBI to have a relook at the closure report filed by it in the court in the Aarushi murder case,” he said.
On December 29, the CBI filed a closure report, saying there was no available evidence at the crime scene to pursue the probe into the murder that shocked the nation two years ago.
“Irresponsible”
Replying to a question, Mr. Moily termed “irresponsible” the Opposition parties' threat to boycott the budget session of Parliament if their demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the 2G spectrum scam was not met. The Opposition parties had no moral right to demand a JPC probe without discharging their “national duty” of participating in the proceedings of Parliament, he said.
“The probe by the CBI will deal with any criminal angle involved in the scam, and the Public Accounts Committee probe will look into the accounts aspects. Besides, the Supreme Court will be monitoring the CBI probe. When all these probes are on, they [the Opposition parties] should establish why there is a need for a JPC,” Mr. Moily said. The Opposition parties should make out their case in Parliament by pointing to the areas that merited a probe by a JPC.
