In night op, CBI loses heads
FEUD FALLOUT Both Verma, Asthana removed; mass transfers in ‘public interest’
NEW DELHI: In an unexpectedly swift predawn move to end a potentially destructive internecine war in the country’s premier investigating agency, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government removed the two principals of CBI, director Alok Kumar Verma and special director Rakesh Asthana, an order immediately challenged by Verma in the apex court, which will hear the appeal on Friday.
The government asked M Nageswar Rao, a 1986-batch Orissa cadre officer and the senior-most joint director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, to look after the duties and functions of the CBI director. Rao, officials familiar with the development said, reached the CBI headquarters at around 11pm on Tuesday and left at 2am on Wednesday after receiving the order in a shakeup of the investigative agency’s ranks.
As Wednesday drew to a close, uncertainty remained over the legitimacy of Verrma’s removal given that the CBI chief has a fixed two-year tenure and Verma’s term runs till Januaryend. Congress party president Rahul Gandhi slammed the government, claiming that the Prime Minister “broke the law” and “bypassed” the Chief Justice of India and the Leader of the Opposition, who were part of the panel that selected the CBI chief.
The order divesting Verma and Asthana of their roles was served to them at their homes at around 2.30am. The government acted within hours of their bitter feud, which became public in October 2017, reaching the courts, with Asthana, who had been stripped by Verma of all his functions, seeking protection from arrest.