For a change, it is the CBI that is in the dock. The premier investigating agency has emerged as a defaulter when it comes to paying for rooms allotted to it in the VIP state guest houses in Dalibagh.
The estates department last month sent reminders (now in the possession of this correspondent) to the CBI to vacate the rooms and/or make payments for the same. A response is still awaited.
According to an estates department official, the CBI owes `63,06,018 for various rooms. The CBI had been allotted 10 rooms in the VIP state guest house in Dalibagh in March 1994 for CBI teams investigating the Ayodhya demolition and also the serial murders of adolescent boys in Lucknow.
While some of the rooms remained in the CBI’s possession till 1996 and 1999, one of the rooms (211) is still in the CBI’s possession and the cumulative rent for these rooms is now `13,45,628.
The Dalibagh guest house staff admit, on condition of anonymity, that the rooms still in CBI possession are being used regularly by people in the CBI, their friends and relatives. “In any other case we would have broken the locks and retaken possession but we cannot do this with the CBI. The rooms are used regularly and we cannot even question the people who frequent the guest house,” said a staff member.
CBI officials, when contacted, refused to comment and some even feigned ignorance.