IAS officers body hits out at CBI; supports Bhave, Abraham

Over 4,700-strong IAS officers Association today hit out at CBI for registering a Preliminary Enquiry against former SEBI's Chairman C B Bhave and its ex-member K M Abraham for alleged irregularities in granting sanction to MCX Stock Exchange.
The Association will take up the matter of both the officers in its executive committee meeting scheduled for this week.
"All retired and serving bureaucrats are annoyed and disturbed over CBI's latest action against Bhave and Abraham who had general public reputation of being very sincere, upright and of high integrity.
"It is unfortunate to see how honest and sincere officers are being hounded in a vicious manner," IAS officers' Association Secretary Sanjay R Bhoos Reddy told PTI.

He said CBI's action would adversely impact both the administration of the central and state governments and ultimately the governance of the country.
"The Central IAS Association has decided to take up the matter in its next executive committee meeting, scheduled this week, to decide the future course of action," Reddy said.

There are about 4,737 IAS officers working across the country.
CBI's PE was registered against Abraham and Bhave on March 13 on issues of alleged irregularities in granting sanction to the MCX-SX by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in 2008 and renewing the recognition in 2009 and 2010.

The probe by CBI is to ascertain how MCX-SX was granted permission despite opposition by SEBI when Bhave was head of the regulatory authority.
CBI's inquiry has also named Jignesh Shah-founded Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL) and its commodity exchange arm MCX.