Days after the Supreme Court ruled that prior sanction is not mandatory for initiating inquiries against senior government officials, the CBI for the first time without obtaining the permission has registered a “preliminary enquiry” (PE) against a former income-tax commissioner of Bhopal to probe his alleged role in a graft case.

Sources said, “The CVC had forwarded a complaint against the former I-T commissioner of Bhopal to the CBI on February 7 for probing allegations against him that he allegedly favoured a private firm in an IT related case. Another charge against the same officer is that he deliberately delayed perusing the special audit against the private firm in exchange for pecuniary gains”.

The CBI, on April 21, had sought sanction from the department of revenue against the ex-commissioner for initiating inquiry against him, sources said. “Armed with the latest order of the SC that sanction by the competent authority is not required to initiate probe against government officials of joint secretaries and above rank, the CBI decided to register a PE without seeking sanction from the competent authority”, sources said.