After Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, the Congress government in Chhattisgarh on Thursday withdrew the general consent accorded to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe cases in the state.

All the three states are ruled by opposition parties and have accused the central agency of acting at the bidding of the Centre, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in power.

CBI comes under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act and it requires states to give the agency a general consent to act against central government employees within the state as public order and police are under the purview of state governments.

Chief minister Bhupesh Baghel wrote to the Union home ministry in this regard on Thursday.

“First of all in the last few months, the Union government has put the role of CBI under question and hence it will not be correct for us to allow CBI to continue arbitrariness in our state. Secondly, CBI is misusing the federal structure and affecting the law and order in the state,” Baghel said.

“By this order, CBI’s movement in the state is not prohibited but the agency will have to take permission before any operations or raids in Chhattisgarh,” Baghel said.

The Chhattisgarh government had given general permission to the CBI in 2001. The central probe agency will now require the permission of the state government to raid or to probe any fresh case in the state.

The decision of the state government came on a day a high-level selection committee comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi removed CBI’s chief Alok Verma. It was taken after more than a two-hour-long meeting of the panel, which comprises chief justice of India and leader of largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.

First Published: Jan 11, 2019 08:54 IST