The CBI is not having a good time. After the fiasco of trying to extradite Quattrochi, now the agency has come in for sharp criticism for its botched probe into charges of murder against Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Shibu Soren.

The Delhi High Court, while overturning the trial court’s verdict of life imprisonment for Soren to acquittal, observed that the CBI had failed miserably to prove the charges.

This is one more serious indictment of the country’s premier investigation agency, and it is not to be passed over as a routine reprimand.

The CBI is often accused of serving the interests of the political masters of the day. As a matter of fact, political pressure has served as an alibi on many occasions.

It has been argued that if the CBI were allowed to function independently, it would be able to solve even the most difficult cases. But that seems to be a weak argument in the present instance. What the court remarked upon is the serious shortcomings with the CBI’s forensic skills in the Soren case.

Apart from the obvious political pressures, the investigators in the country have been found to be quite sloppy in their work. This has serious consequences.

First, it implicates an innocent person in a crime that he or she has not committed. On the other hand, the faulty methods could enable a guilty person to get away because of the loopholes in evidence. And on both counts, the investigators would be guilty of subverting justice.

As part of the ongoing reform of the criminal justice system, there is need to vastly improve the methodology of crime investigation that is now in place.

The main problem seems to lie in the fact that the investigators are allowed to build the necessary evidence to present the case.

There is then the temptation to play truant in the construction of evidence, and there could be foul play too. Imagine the number of guilty people roaming about because the CBI did not manage to prove its case.

Some of the sloppy investigation is visible in the Soren case. The High Court has pointed out that the DNA of the skeleton does not match that of the victim — the secretary of Soren. Somewhere along the line, the investigators did not bother about keeping the evidence watertight.

In any other agency, heads would have rolled. The CBI cannot hide behind the usual excuse of shadowy political pressure. It will have to accept that it has a poor record and work towards setting its house in order. Only then will the country redeem its faith in the apparently premier agency.