The state bureaucracy on Friday launched an attack on the CBI joint director V.V. Lakshminarayana for conducting the probe under media glare. Scores of IAS officials met the Chief Minister and complained that many investigating officials lacked basic knowledge of business rules and were humiliating bureaucrats.

“Can the joint director ask if the CM has powers to give directions to civil servants?” they wondered. They questioned the CBI proceeding with the prosecution without the state’s permission. “Permission by the department of personnel, Centre, is an additional requirement, but not a substitute to the primary sanction by the state,” they said. The officers also took exception to the CBI leaking information to the media before and after questioning every official. The babus demanded that officers facing prosecution for acts during the course of duty, must be legally defended by the government that should bear all the expenses.