CBI filed a record 1,005 cases and preliminary enquires in 2025: Report

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered 1,005 cases and preliminary enquiries (PEs) in 2025, the highest ever in a single year and nearly 48% more than 2020 when it filed 676 cases and enquiries, according to the latest annual report of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and agency data independently reviewed by HT.

“During the year 2025, 1,005 regular cases, PEs and Lokpal references were registered by CBI. Out of the 1,005 cases, 161 cases were taken up on the orders of the constitutional courts and 27 cases on the references received from the state governments and union territories,” stated the CVC’s 2025 annual report, seen by HT.

The agency had registered a total of 840 cases in 2024, 876 in 2023, 946 in 2022, 747 in 2021 and 676 in 2020, according to previous years’ CVC reports.

CBI officials, who requested anonymity, attributed the increase in numbers to a proactive approach by the federal agency, particularly in its core duties—trapping corrupt government servants while taking bribes and registering disproportionate assets (DA) cases.

“Other than special crimes, bank frauds, and other economic offences, a special focus for the past couple of years has been to target the corrupt officers, which is our core work. Subsequently, multiple cases have been registered to investigate digital arrest scams, human trafficking networks in south-east Asia and builders-bankers’ nexus to cheat homebuyers,” said an officer, who asked not to be named.

In 2025, the CVC report said, CBI laid 265 traps against government servants for detection of bribery cases. It also registered 81 cases to investigate possession of disproportionate assets by government servants.

Officials said that the trap and DA cases averaged around 100-150 till the last couple of years. It is also for the first time ever that CBI has registered 81 DA cases in a year.

Another area where CBI has performed well, according to CVC, is completing investigations in its cases. In 2025, the report says, CBI completed probes in 1064 cases, which consisted of 876 regular cases (RCs), 165 PEs and inquiry or status reports sent in 23 Lokpal references.

“At the end of year 2025, a total of 755 cases were pending, out of which 679 were regular cases, 63 preliminary inquiries and 13 Lokpal references. 274 regular cases were pending for more than one year and 39 preliminary enquiries were pending for more than 3 months at the end of 2025,” CVC says.

While the agency boasts of filing record cases in 2025, it still faces significant issues in completing its probes. The agency is expected to complete its probes within one year of registration of a case. But the CVC reports says that CBI’s 473 probes under the Prevention of Corruption Act are pending at the end of 2025.