Central Bureau Of Investigation Archives - Page 3 of 3 - Lokmarg

Sisodia Leaves CBI HQ After 9 Hrs, Claims Was Asked To Quit AAP

By LokMarg 17th October 2022

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia left the CBI headquarters in the national capital on Monday after nine hours of questioning in the excise policy case.

He was summoned by the Central agency following which the Aam Aadmi Party took out a rally in support of Manish Sisodia on the way to CBI headquarters earlier today.
Speaking to the media at his residence, Sisodia alleged that the case against him was intended not to probe any scam but to “make Operation Lotus successful in Delhi”.

“Today I saw in the CBI office that there’s no issue of any scam (excise policy case). The whole case is fake. I understood all that in the 9 hour-questioning today. The case isn’t to probe any scam against me, but to make Operation Lotus successful in Delhi,” he alleged.

Sisodia further claimed that he was asked inside the CBI office to leave AAP and said that he was offered to be made the Chief Minister.

“I was asked inside the CBI office to leave (AAP), or else such cases will keep getting registered against me. I was told ‘Satyendar Jain ke upar konse sachhe cases hain?’…I said I won’t leave AAP for BJP. They said they’ll make me CM,” he alleged.

According to a CBI official, the Delhi Deputy Chief Minister has not been summoned tomorrow, however, he could be summoned again later.

“CBI will evaluate the answers given by (Delhi Dy CM) Manish Sisodia and if needed, he will be summoned again later. No summons to Sisodia for tomorrow,” a CBI official said.

Sisodia had arrived for questioning earlier today amid the allegations by the party of his possible arrest in the case.

Addressing the workers of the party before going to the agency headquarter, Sisodia had called upon AAP workers to “feel proud if he is sent to jail”.

“They are preparing to send me to jail. CBI raided my residence but nothing was found. Don’t feel sorry if I am sent to jail, feel proud,” he said.

Earlier today, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal linked Sisodia’s summons to the Gujarat Assembly elections later this year and alleged that his Deputy Chief Minister would be arrested.

“Nothing was found in Manish’s house raid, nothing was found in the bank locker. The case against them is completely false. He had to go to Gujarat for the election campaign. Arresting him to stop him from going. But the election campaign will not stop. Every person in Gujarat is promoting AAP today,” Kejriwal tweeted this morning.

On Sunday, AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj claimed that Sisodia “will be arrested”.

He also tried to draw parallels between the CBI summoning Sisodia with the upcoming Gujarat election. “CBI has summoned Manish Sisodia and will arrest him tomorrow. It has been alleged that a huge scam of Rs 10,000 crore has taken place and for that CBI and ED (Enforcement Directorate) have raided at at least 500 places so far. CBI raided Sisodia’s residence for 14 hours, but they could not find anything,” said AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj.

“This is directly linked with Gujarat elections as AAP competes with the BJP there and hence is scared. Manish Sisodia will be arrested to stop his programmes but the AAP will only grow stronger,” he added.

Meanwhile, BJP lashed out at the AAP for the show of strength in the rally and called it a “celebration of corruption”.

“When Rahul Gandhi was summoned by ED, then also Congress started doing drama like this. It will not be an exaggeration to say that it is a celebration of corruption. First, they did corruption while giving liquor licences in Delhi and now they are doing all this drama,” Patra said.

“The way Manish Sisodia was raising slogans in an open car on the streets along with his supporters today, it seems as if Aam Aadmi Party has won the World Cup of corruption. Arvind Kejriwal was a part of Anna Hazare’s Andolan and used to say that he will finish corruption, but now it seems AAP has itself become the most corrupt party in the country,” Patra further said. (ANI)

Read More:http://13.232.95.176/

CBI Summons Sisodia, AAP Claims He Will Be Arrested

By LokMarg 16th October 2022

In the wake of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) summoning Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia for questioning in the alleged excise policy corruption case, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj on Sunday claimed that Sisodia “will be arrested tomorrow”.

He also tried to draw parallels between the CBI summoning Sisodia with the upcoming Gujarat elections.
According to Bhardwaj, the Bharatiya Janata Party is scared of AAP in Gujarat as it is competing with them.

“CBI has summoned Manish Sisodia and will arrest him tomorrow. It has been alleged that a huge scam of Rs 10,000 crore has taken place and for that CBI and ED (Enforcement Directorate) have raided at atleast 500 places so far. CBI raided Sisodia’s residence for 14 hours, but they could not find anything,” said AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj.

Bhardwaj further mentioned that he is confident about Sisodia’s arrest because the same drill has it happened earlier when AAP leaders were called for questioning and then arrested.

While exuding confidence in AAP’s victory in Gujarat, the AAP senior leader said that the party will emerge “stronger” with the “increasing” numbers of arrests.

“We would have remained silent if we were afraid. The rise in the number of arrests will raise our graph in Gujarat, the increase in BJP’s oppression will make our graph rise,” he said.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was summoned by CBI today and he shall go to the central agency’s headquarters on Monday, he confirmed with his tweet.

“I will go and fully cooperate with the CBI as it has called me to the headquarters at 11 am tomorrow after raiding my house for 14 hours and searching bank account and even my village where they could not find anything,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.

In August, the enforcement agencies conducted searches on Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s official residence among several other places in connection with the alleged corruption in the implementation of Delhi’s excise policy.

Sisodia, who is in charge of the excise department, has been under the scanner for alleged deliberate and gross procedural lapses which provided undue benefits to the tender process for liquor licensees for the year 2021-22.

Sisodia is believed to have executed decisions in violation of the statutory provisions of the Excise Policy, which could have huge financial implications. Such “undue financial favours” to the liquor licensees after the deadline for awarding tenders caused huge losses to the exchequer, sources earlier claimed.

The excise policy was passed in chief minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi Cabinet in the middle of the deadly Delta Covid-19 pandemic in 2021.

Sisodia was among 15 others booked in an FIR filed by the CBI in August including then Excise Commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna, Deputy Commissioner Anand Tiwari and Assistant Commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar.

Other accused are Manoj Rai, a former employee of Pernod Ricard; Amandeep Dhal, director of Brindco Sales; director of Buddy Retail Amit Arora, and Dinesh Arora; authorised signatories of Mahadev Liquors Sunny Marwah, Arun Ramchandra Pillai and Arjun Pandey.

The ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the Excise Policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, the licence fee was waived or reduced and the L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority’s approval. The beneficiaries diverted “illegal” gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection.

As alleged, the Excise Department had decided to refund the Earnest Money Deposit of about Rs 30 crore to a successful tenderer against the set rules. Even though there was no enabling provision, a waiver on tendered licence fees was allowed from December 28, 2021, to January 27, 2022, due to COVID-19.

This allegedly caused a loss of Rs 144.36 crore to the exchequer, said the FIR, which has been instituted on a reference from the Union Home Ministry following a recommendation from Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena. (ANI)

Read More:http://13.232.95.176/

CBI Opposes Bail Plea Of Anil Deshmukh in Extortion Case

By LokMarg 14th October 2022

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday opposed the bail application filed by former Maharashtra Home Minister and NCP leader Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Anil Deshmukh in connection with the Rs 100 crore extortion matter.

Deshmukh had filed a petition for bail in the CBI court, on which the CBI has filed its reply today, to which the lawyer of Anil Deshmukh will now argue on October 18, the next hearing of the case.

Meanwhile, the NCP leader was taken to Jaslok Hospital from Arthur Road Jail today.

He was admitted to Jaslok Hospital today after the special PMLA court had allowed Anil Deshmukh to undergo angiography in a private hospital.

Deshmukh had been accused of asking policemen to collect Rs 100 crores illegally for him every month from bar owners in Mumbai.

Earlier on October 11, the Supreme Court refused to cancel the bail granted to the former home minister in the money laundering case lodged against him by Enforcement Directorate (ED).

A bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud refused to interfere with the Bombay High Court order which granted bail to Deshmukh.

Enforcement Directorate has approached the apex court challenging the Bombay High Court’s order granting bail to Deshmukh, who was arrested in connection with a money laundering case.

On October 4, the Bombay High Court granted bail to Deshmukh in a money laundering case being investigated by the ED.

Deshmukh continues to be in judicial custody in Arthur Road prison as he is also being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a corruption case.

Deshmukh was arrested by the ED in November 2021 and is currently in judicial custody.

According to the ED, Deshmukh had misused his position as state home minister and collected Rs 4.70 crore from various bars in Mumbai through some police officers. (ANI)

Read More:http://13.232.95.176/

Mallikarjun Kharge To Campaign in Gujarat

BJP Scared Of Rahul’s Popularity Due To Bharat Jodo Yatra: Kharge

By LokMarg 9th October 2022

Congress Presidential candidate and MP Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday claimed that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is “scared” of Rahul Gandhi’s “rising popularity” due to Bharat Jodo Yatra.

“Many people are associating themselves with Rahul Gandhi. BJP is scared after seeing Bharat Jodo Yatra. As Rahul Gandhi’s popularity is increasing, these people’s (popularity) is reducing,” Kharge said.
Earlier today, Kharge had said that he is fighting the Congress Presidential polls because the condition in the country is very “bad” and he wants to “fight” them.

“I want to fight because the condition in the country is bad. Modi and Shah are doing politics where there is no place for Democracy. Agencies like CBI and ED are weakening. To fight them I need to have power. That is why, on the recommendation of delegations, I am fighting the polls,” Kharge said.

Shashi Tharoor and Mallikarjun Kharge are up against each other in the race for the post of Congress President.

Digvijaya Singh pulled out from the race earlier and extended his support to Kharge, who he said is a senior and respected leader of the party, and against whom he “cannot think of contesting”.

Singh was the second Congress leader to pull out of the race after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot announced he would not contest the elections following the political turmoil in his state.

With the Gandhis not running for the top post, the grand old party is all set to get a non-Gandhi president after over 25 years.

The last date for withdrawal of nominations is October 8. Voting will take place on October 17 and the election results will be declared on October 19.

The MP from Wayanad is currently leading Bharat Jodo Yatra- the 3,500-km march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, covering as many as 12 states. The Yatra started from Kanyakumari and will end in Kashmir the next year by covering 25 km every day.

According to Congress, the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ is being held to combat the divisive politics of the BJP-led Centre and to awaken the people of the country to the dangers of economic inequalities, social polarisation, and political centralization.

Notably, all the party MPs, leaders, and workers along with Rahul Gandhi are staying in containers. Sleeping beds, toilets, and ACs are also installed in some of the containers.

The arrangements have been made keeping in view the intense heat and humidity with the change of places.

The Congress suffered a debacle in the assembly polls held earlier this year and the Yatra is seen as an attempt to rally the party rank and file for the upcoming electoral battles. (ANI)

Read More:http://13.232.95.176/

CBI Files Chargesheet Against Conman Sukesh In Impersonation Case

By LokMarg 7th October 2022

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday filed a charge sheet against Sukesh Chandrashekhar and his associate in a fraud case instituted in 2019.

CBI has submitted a charge sheet against Sukesh Chandrashekhar and Sanjay Jain alias Sanjay Chicken, residents of Punjabi Bagh, Delhi, before CJM, Chengalpattu of Kancheepuram District in Tamil Nadu.

CBI had registered a case in May 2020 on the orders Supreme Court of India and took over the investigation of an FIR registered in 2019, earlier registered at police station DCB, Tiruvallur, Chennai (Tamilnadu) against an accused.

During the investigation, the role of both the said accused emerged. The accused had allegedly conspired to cheat by impersonation using digital devices. One of the accused had allegedly committed the offence while being in custody parole during October 2019 and also impersonated many Senior officers of the Government of India by using call spoofing techniques and made phone calls to various persons, who were facing criminal cases by different investigating agencies.

It was further alleged that he had extorted huge sums of amounts as bribes from them in the guise of settling their cases and misappropriated the money so collected for his personal use.

The other accused resident of Punjabi Bagh, Delhi was in regular contact with the said accused and used to handle his legal matters by arranging lawyers, dealing his parole matter, etc.

The investigation has also revealed that Income Tax Department had conducted raids on the premises of different organizations and individuals including one organization having a temple at Varadaiahpalem, District Tirupati (AP), and other related organizations during October 2019.

The said accused contacted one of the persons handling operations of the organization by impersonating himself as the then Law Secretary, Government of India, and allegedly pressurized them to pay Rs. 7.50 Crore. He had made ‘Spoofed Calls’ to representatives of the said Group which promoted the said organization, showing calling numbers as landline numbers of higher government functionaries, which were actually originated from outside India.

The accused had also obtained foreign numbers and used them for the collection of Rs 2 crore from Mumbai.

CBI had taken custody of the accused. One of the accused (impersonator) is presently in judicial custody. (ANI)

ED Raids Nearly 3 Dozen Locations In Delhi, Punjab

By LokMarg 7th October 2022

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday carried out searches at nearly three dozen locations in Delhi and Punjab in connection with the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 case.

The raids were conducted days after the Central agency arrested Sameer Mahendru, Managing Director of Delhi’s Jor Bagh-based liquor distributor Indospirit Group, in the case.
Among the accused in the case is Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, the then Excise Commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna, Deputy Commissioner Anand Tiwari and Assistant Commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar.

Read More:http://13.232.95.176/

UKSSSC Paper Leak: Chargesheet Against Expelled BJP Leader Hakam Singh

By LokMarg 6th October 2022

The Special Task Force (STF) on Thursday filed another charge sheet against expelled BJP leader Hakam Singh and nine others in the Uttarakhand Subordinate Service Selection Commission (UKSSSC) case.

“After the registration of the case on July 22 in this case, the STF has arrested 41 accused in this case so far, and the process of arrest is still going on,” STF’s Superintendent of Police of STF, Ajay Singh, said in a release.
The probe body has invoked the Gangsters Act against Singh and 21 other accused in the case.

As many as 41 people, including Gaurav Chauhan, the Additional Private Secretary in the Public Works and Forest Department of State Secretariat, allegedly involved in the paper leak case have been arrested so far.

STF is investigating the UKSSSC paper leak case but there is a demand for the CBI probe.

“I have also said earlier that cases of wrongful recruitment have been coming for many years. Now that the matter has come before me, we have given the police to investigate and hand over the case to STF,” Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had said on September 23.

The Chief Minister clarified that the case may get shifted to the CBI, if there is a need.

“We have not drawn any Lakshman Rekha for investigation,” he said when asked if his government will recommend a CBI probe into the case.

On Tuesday, Hakam Singh’s resort in Uttarkashi’s Sankri Mori was bulldozed by authorities as it was allegedly illegally constructed. (ANI)

Read More:http://13.232.95.176/

CBI Detains Russian National In 2021 JEE Main Paper Leak Case

By LokMarg 3rd October 2022

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday detained a foreign national and mastermind of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2021 paper leak case.

According to sources, the CBI is interrogating a foreign national after taking him over from the Bureau of Immigration (BoI) at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, which had detained this Russian national on his arrival from Kazakhstan based on a Look out Circular (LOC) issued by the CBI in the software tampering case of JEE Mains-2021. He was the main hacker in the case.

“He was the mastermind in the case who has hacked the software of examination. We are questioning him to ascertain the role of the other people involved in the case and identifying the people who were giving instructions to him,” said a senior CBI official.

The accused has been identified as Mikhail Shargin, a Russian national.

The accused was detained by the Bureau of Immigration at IGI Airport, Delhi while arriving in India from Almaty, Kazakhstan. A Look Out Circular was opened against him.

During the investigation, it came to light that some foreign nationals were involved in compromising many online examinations, including JEE (Mains), by colluding with other accused in the instant case. The role of one Russian national was revealed who had allegedly tampered with the iLeon software (the platform on which the JEE(Main)-2021 examination was conducted) and that he helped other accused in hacking the computer systems of suspect candidates during the examination. Therefore, a Look Out Circular was issued against the said Russian National.

On September 2021, CBI had registered a case against a private company and others including its Directors and three employees, private persons(conduits), etc on the allegations of irregularities being committed in the ongoing JEE (Mains) Exams 2021 by a private educational institution, its directors, their touts/associates and staff posted at the examination center and other unknown persons.

It was further alleged that the said company and its directors were manipulating the online examination of JEE (Mains) and facilitating aspiring students to get admission to top NITs in consideration of a huge amount by solving the question paper of the applicant through remote access from a chosen examination center in Sonepat (Haryana).

It was also alleged that the accused used to obtain the Xth and XIIth mark sheets, the User IDs, Passwords, and Post-Dated Cheques of aspiring students in different parts of the country as security, and once admission was done, they used to collect a heavy amount of ranging from Rs 12-15 lakh per candidate.

Searches were conducted in Delhi & NCR, Pune, Jamshedpur, Indore, and Bangalore, which led to the recovery of 25 laptops, seven PCs, and around 30 post-dated cheques along with voluminous incriminating documents and devices, including PDC mark sheets of different students. (ANI)

Read More:http://13.232.95.176/

Chargesheet Against 16 Incl Partha In Bengal SSC Scam

By LokMarg 30th September 2022

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a charge sheet in the West Bengal Central School Service Commission(SSC) scam against 16 accused including former state minister Partha Chatterjee, on Friday.

CBI in a statement mentioned that a charge sheet has been filed against 16 accused, including the then Advisor at West Bengal Central School Service Commission, in a case related to SSC Recruitment before the Special CBI Court in Alipore.
The accused in the charge sheet have been identified as Dr. Santi Prasad Sinha, then Advisor at West Bengal Central School Service Commission; Samarjit Acharya, then Programme Officer; Prof. Saumitra Sarkar, then Chairman of West Bengal Central School Service Commission; Ashok Kr Saha, then Assistant Secretary, West Bengal Central School Service Commission; Dr. Kalyanmoy Ganguly, then President of Adhoc Committee at West Bengal Board of Secondary Education; Dr. Partha Chattopadhyay, then Minister in Charge of Department of School Education and Dipankar Ghosh, Subrata Khan, Akshay Moni, Shri Samaresh Mondal, Soumya Kanti Middya, Avijit Dalai, Sukanta Malik, Idrish Ali Molla, Ajit Bar and Forid Hossain Laskar (all illegally appointed candidates).

The said case was registered on the orders of the High Court of Calcutta.

It was alleged that the said accused entered into a conspiracy with one another in order to extend undue advantage in the matter of giving appointments to the unqualified candidates to the posts of Group-C staff at various schools through 3rd RLST (NT), 2016, after the expiry of the panel.

Dr Santi Prasad Sinha, Ashok Kr Saha, Dr. Kalyanmoy Gangully, and Dr Partha Chattopadhyay, all are presently in judicial custody.

Further investigation is underway to find out if there was a larger conspiracy and the role of other persons is continuing. (ANI)

Read More:http://13.232.95.176/

Are India’s Probing Agencies Becoming Political Puppets?

By Sanjoy Narayan 7th January 2021

Last month the Jammu & Kashmir People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said the Centre was “weaponising” central investigating agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), National Investigation Agency (NIA), and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) by using them to probe and harass her, her friends and family, and her party leaders. She scathingly remarked that the ruling regime, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was using these agencies as its “mistresses” to target her and her party.

Jammu and Kashmir is now administered as a Union Territory under the terms of Article 239A (which was initially applied to Puducherry is now also applicable to the Union Territory as per The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019) of the Constitution of India. Before that Act was passed, J&K was administered by a coalition government that was formed by an alliance of the PDP and the BJP. That alliance was ill-fated and in June 2018, it broke down, leading J&K back to Governor’s Rule.

Ms Mufti’s remarks alleging that the Centre is using the government’s investigation agencies to target the ruling regime’s political opponents is not an isolated one. This is not the first time that CBI, NIA, ED, and other central investigative agencies have been accused of being used politically by ruling regimes in India. The CBI is India’s premier investigating agency and functions as a national investigating and security organisation as well as an intelligence agency; the NIA acts as the Central Counter Terrorism Law Enforcement Agency; and the ED is a law enforcement agency and economic intelligence agency that is responsible for enforcing economic laws and fighting economic crime in India.

Targeting political rivals or opposition leaders by using the services of such agencies is not new in India. Successive ruling regimes have been observed to have done it. However, the rising concerns are about the alleged spread of the practice since 2014 when the incumbent BJP-led coalition came to power at the Centre and, subsequently, was re-elected in 2019. The BJP’s clearly-stated objective is not only to make India emerge as a country “freed of the Congress” (Congress mukt Bharat, in Hindi) but also to wrest control in as many of the Indian states as it can. So, its political rivals include, not only a national party such as the Congress, but also several regional parties that hold sway in the states.

ALSO READ: Press Freedom Is A Myth In India

The first of the apparently politically-motivated actions by investigating agencies during the BJP-ruled regime began early. Soon after the BJP-led coalition came to power in 2014, investigative agencies swung into action. There were raids at the Delhi chief minister (and vocal opponent of the BJP) Arvind Kejriwal’s office; and old cases against Uttar Pradesh’s Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati were revived. In 2019, just before the general elections, the CBI raided the Kolkata police commissioner’s office without a warrant in what was an action quite clearly directed at undermining the Trinamool Congress’ Mamata Banerjee who is the chief minister of West Bengal and also a huge critic of the ruling regime at the Centre.

The list of such political targeting by investigative agencies is long. In 2019, former Haryana chief minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, faced raids in connection to old cases of alleged corruption in land deals; Congress MP and political secretary to Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel (who passed away in 2020) was linked to a money-laundering scheme in Gujarat; and the homes of leaders close to the Biju Janata Dal leader and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik were raided before panchayat elections in that state. These are only a few examples of what Indian political parties, particularly those who oppose the BJP, call “political vendetta” against them. Last month, when the ED summoned a Shiv Sena leader’s wife in Mumbai for questioning in connection with a bank fraud, the party’s workers put up a banner in front of the city’s ED office, which proclaimed that it was a BJP office.

ALSO READ: Is Maharashtra A Wake Up Call For BJP?

It should not be anybody’s case the charges that are levelled by the investigating agencies against opposition politicians are rigged or false. Some (or perhaps, even all) of them may have some basis for investigation. But it is the concerted manner in which the agencies are used that is of concern because it smacks of government interference in the role of the agencies that are supposed to be autonomous and apolitical.

One of the most high-profile cases was the one involving former finance minister P Chidambaram in 2019. He was accused of being involved in the INX Media scandal. Chidambaram was charged with allowing an irregular transfer of overseas funds to the media company. Chidambaram was arrested and the CBI tried to extend his custody many times. But that case has now gone nowhere.

That is the other thing. Many of the cases on which investigative agencies have based their actions against opposition political leaders have either died down, reached a dead-end, or not been pursued after the initial raids, arrests, and so on. While that could reinforce the opposition parties’ allegations that the ruling regime is using the agencies for political vendetta, the more serious issue is about what such a practice could do to the reputation and autonomy of India’s central investigating agencies, which are, by law, meant to be non-partisan, apolitical, unbiased, and independent. If these institutions and their functioning are prone to political interference, not only will their functioning be eroded but Indians will lose their faith in the establishment and its ability to function without fear and favour.