CBI raids own headquarters as top bosses fight, PMO steps in
In an irony of sorts, a team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths on Monday conducted a raid on the 10th floor of its own headquarters in New Delhi while the two warring top bosses were summoned by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). To add to the public slugfest already in play, ‘top secret’ letters by the bosses, making bribery allegations against each other, surfaced.
Sources said the ball was set rolling after CBI Director Alok Verma met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday night. On Monday, Special Director Rakesh Asthana, a 1984-batch Gujarat-cadre IPS officer, was summoned by the PMO.
The PMO, it is learnt, has given a goahead to Verma to act freely in the case and there are indications that Asthana may be removed from his position. “Soon, the CBI will officially write to the ministry of personnel and training to remove Asthana, as his position is untenable now,” said a person aware of the developments.
Possibly, in a sign of things to come, the CBI arrested its Deputy Superintendent of Police (SP) Devender Kumar on Monday in connection with bribery allegations involving the agency’s second-in-command Asthana.
Kumar was the investigating officer in a case involving alleged tax evader Moin Qureshi, a meat exporter. The case was being supervised by Asthana. The deputy SP was arrested for alleged forgery in recording the statement of Hyderabad-based businessman Sathish Sana, who reportedly paid bribes to get relief in the Qureshi case, sources said. Other members of the Asthana-led team are also being investigated by the agency.
A statement from the CBI alleged that Kumar fabricated the statement as an "afterthought... to corroborate the baseless allegations made by Asthana against the CBI director to the Central Vigilance Commissioner."
The CVC has initiated an enquiry into the matter.
According to a complaint made by Asthana on October 19 to the CVC, Sana had paid bribe to Verma to avoid interrogation and the Cabinet Secretary was apprised about it. Asthana alleged that Sana met Verma through Telegu Desam Party MP C M Ramesh on October 4 and was assured by Verma that he would not be called for interrogation anymore. “The case was subsequently transferred to a different team with malafide intention of saving the bribe payer and to falsely implicate me,” Asthana wrote.
The agency, however, booked Asthana on October 15 on the basis of a complaint by Sana. The businessman claimed that brothers Manoj and Somesh Prasad, acting on behalf of Asthana, sought ~50 million from him for relief in the Qureshi case. The complainant claimed to have paid the Prasads.
On August 24, Asthana had alerted the CVC against Verma, complaining that he had taken a bribe of ~20 million from Sana. CBI officials alleged that a statement made by Sana was purportedly recorded on September 26 by the investigating team. But a CBI probe revealed that the businessman was in Hyderabad on September 26.
In his statement, Sana said that in June he had discussed his case with Ramesh, who, after allegedly speaking to the CBI director, had assured him that he would not be summoned again. "From June, I was not called by the CBI. I was under the impression that investigation against me was complete," he is believed to have said.
Asthana is planning to move court for interim protection from arrest, according to a source.
Giving it a political twist, Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted, "the PM's blue-eyed boy, Gujarat cadre officer, of Godhra SIT fame, infiltrated as number 2 into the CBI, has now been caught taking bribes. Under this PM, the CBI is a weapon of political vendetta. An institution in terminal decline that's at war with itself."