The Minister gave away the CBI Gold Medal to Best Investigating Officer of CBI for the year 2014 to Shri Vijay Kumar Shukla, DSP, SC-II, CBI, New Delhi; Best Employee Award to Support Staff(Ministerial) for the year 2015 to Shri Samarendra Kumar Deb, Crime Assistant, ACB, CBI, Guwahati; Best Branch of CBI for the year 2014 to ACB, CBI, Lucknow and Best Branch of CBI for the year 2015 to ACB, CBI, Jodhpur. Speaking on the occasion, the Minister applauded the legacy of CBI & the trust and confidence which the organisation evokes in the people of India which is reflected in the clamour across the country for cases to be investigated by CBI. He exhorted the organisation and its officials to keep the sanctity of the organisation intact. He appreciated the timeliness of discussion points of the conference - “Multi Agency Cooperation in tackling financial and economic Crimes”; “National Anti-Corruption Citizen Support Centre” & “Ponzi Schemes Scam-Need for an effective Legal Framework”, and hoped that the take aways from the conference are implemented.

Director, CBI Shri Anil Sinha congratulated all the award winners. Speaking on the occasion, he informed that the conference resolved that CBI with the assistance of Govt. of India may set up a ‘National Anti-Corruption Citizen Support Centre’ for lodging Corruption related complaints pertaining to Ministries/ Departments and PSUs of the Govt. of India & the Union Territories. CBI will be writing to the State Governments to join the initiative. States with similar systems in existence can be integrated with this new initiative and made interoperable, if the State so desires, he added.

Elaborating on the deliberations at the Conference on the subject of Ponzi schemes, Shri Anil Sinha said that CBI alone is investigating cases in which more than 6 Crore investors/victims spread across 26 states involving Rs. 85,000 crores(approx) of public money. There are hundreds of Criminal Cases with State Police and EOWs. CBI was part of the Sub-Group of the Inter-Ministerial Group for identifying gaps in the existing legal and regulatory framework for deposit-taking activities and to suggest administrative/legislative measures, including formulation of a new law, to cover all relevant aspects of ‘deposit-taking’. A comprehensive Central law titled the “Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes and Protection of Depositors’ Interests Bill, 2016” is on the anvil. Further, the Government has announced in the Budget 2016-17 that it proposes to bring in a comprehensive Central legislation in 2016-17 to deal with the menace of unauthorised deposit taking schemes. In this background, the conference resolved that early enactment of the proposed central law which bans and criminalizes all unregulated deposits with provisions for attachment and confiscation of proceeds of crime to refund the depositors will go a long way in curbing the menace. The conference also resolved that the early establishment of a “National Intelligence Mechanism”, as recommended by the Inter Ministerial Group, would ensure timely collection and dissemination of the Intelligence to prevent exploitation through such dubious Ponzi Schemes. The summary of the deliberations would be forwarded to Department of Financial Services.

Lastly, the Conference also deliberated on Cooperation among the multiple investigation agencies and regulatory bodies involved in tackling financial and economic crimes. As criminals and corrupt are adopting sophisticated modus operandi and advanced technologies, seamless exchange of intelligence and joint investigations are an imperative need to combat these Economic and Financial Crimes. Better inter-agency coordination and cooperation is an inescapable necessity in the light of growing complexity of financial products and services. The conference resolved that Mechanisms and Protocols need to be developed to facilitate real time exchange of intelligence and evidence in an environment of mutual trust and cooperation.

Director CBI further said that the Investigations into complex financial Crimes require cutting edge technology tools, professionals in the domains like Forensic Accounting, Fraud Examination, Digital Forensics. In order to exceed and overcome these challenges, CBI proposed setting up of a Centralized Technology Vertical (CTV-CBI). The proposal has been approved by Department of Personnel and Training and an allocation of Rs. 100 Crores has been made for a period of 5 years, starting with this Financial Year. On behalf of CBI, Shri Anil Sinha gratefully acknowledged the sustained support of Government in all these endeavours of CBI. These efforts will substantially contribute to improving the delivery of justice for the citizens. Time has also come in India to enhance use of technology in trial processes and undertake comprehensive simplification of procedural laws to expedite the delivery of justice, he added.