Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil [Images] in an interview with a television channel said the Gujarat and Karnataka blasts should be investigated by the Central Bureau Investigation as the culprits who perpetrated the crimes may be hiding in other states and the CBI's purview lies across states.

He denied that the armed forces have been armed with the special powers act only to use it against innocenet people.

"The armed forces are deployed at the border and it is there they have to have such powers without which they cannot do their job," he said.

Patil said that enough money has been sanctioned to the states that asked for funds for modernisation of police forces to meet the challenge from Naxals (who are currently operating in nine states).

"There has been 40 per cent improvement on the ground level situation," he claimed.

"The person who indulges in crime needs to be punished. You cannot kill another innocent person in place of the actual culprit," he said.

He referred to terrorism in Punjab and said how this was crushed by the state police led by then director general of Punjab police K P S Gill.

He explained that those who are involved in investigation and administration do not say anything, but those who are on the sidelines give their own opinion.

Talking about time consumed to speed up acts of terror committed by terrorists, he said that the trial of Mahatma Gandhi [Images] took six years to be completed.