New Delhi - India's prime minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has been roiled by a series of corruption scandals, on Saturday urged the country's top police agency to “act without fear or favour”.
Singh's comments came as his Congress-led coalition reels from a slew of scandals, with his own personal reputation on the line amid charges that he allowed graft to go unchecked during his seven years in office.
The prime minister noted that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was investigating many high-profile cases of corruption that have attracted wide public attention.
“The handling of these cases constitutes a litmus test for you,” Singh said at the opening of a new CBI headquarters in New Delhi.
“What is expected of you is thorough investigation, fair action and quick results. The CBI should act without fear or favour and bring to book all those who are guilty, irrespective of their position or status,” he said.
“Whoever transgresses the law of the land, however mighty, has to be brought to book,” Singh said.
At the same time, Singh told the CBI not to engage in witch-hunts.
“There should be no vendetta, no witch-hunt and no harassment of the innocent,” he said.
Singh's government is in the eye of a storm over a multi-billion-dollar scandal over alleged sales of telecom licences for kickbacks and suspected graft involving last October's Delhi Commonwealth Games.
Last week, the CBI arrested Suresh Kalmadi, a senior Congress lawmaker who was the top organiser of the $6 billion Games, on corruption charges.
The CBI also earlier arrested Singh's former telecoms minister A. Raja, government officials and senior telecom company officials in connection with the telecom scam, said by the national auditor to have cost the treasury up to $40 billion in lost revenues. - Sapa-AFP