PRE-PLANNED ‘CBI PLOT’ THICKENS
Cong hints at midnight conspiracy in Verma’s removal
The Congress on Saturday fired a fresh salvo on the premeditated operation carried out past midnight on October 22-23 to oust CBI chief Alok Verma, calling it a nefarious pre-planned conspiracy to preempt register an FIR in the Rafale corruption.
Congress general secretary Ashok Gehlot, party chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala and spokesman Shaktisinh Gohil narrated the sequence of events played out by various officers that night to expose the plot by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Central Vigilance Commission and National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval, who had just few hours earlier lectured on the need to have a strong government for the next 10 years.
Chief of Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) KV Chowdary cancelled his scheduled visit to Denmark on the evening of October 23 and held a meeting of the commission shortly before the midnight of October 22 while CBI joint director M Nageswara Rao was asked to reach the CBI headquarters at 11am anticipating the CVC order.
The drama started to unfold at midnight when the Delhi Police Commissioner (CP) received instructions from the NSA and briefs for Delhi police officers to take over the CBI headquarters. At 12.30 am, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) that guards the headquarters prevented police entry. The CP spoke to the CISF head, who also received instructions from the PMO/NSA to permit Delhi police to take over and that is how police took control of the CBI.
The CVC chief met his two colleagues from 8pm to 12.30am on October 22 and drafted the order for removal of Alok Verma as director by divesting him of all his duties. The CVC order reached North Block at 1am where Secretary Personnel C Chandramouli was waiting as per the instructions of the PMO.
Chandramouli rushed to PMO, Cabinet Committee on Appointments (CCA), comprising PM and Home Minister, approved Verma’s removal and M Nageswara Rao’s appointment as the new CBI director. It is doubtful if Home Minister Rajnath Singh was woken up to give a go-ahead in the decision.
At 2.30am, the CVC, additional secretary, DoPT, Lok Ranjan and Nageswara Rao emerged from the CBI headquarters, while at the same time the order was served to Alok Verma at his residence.
With the timeline elaborated, the three Congress leaders wondered if the CVC chief deliberately permitted himself to be misused by the government to carry out the sinister conspiracy to put lid on the investigations into the Rafale corruption and why did he misread the law to help the government conduct the nefarious conspiracy in the wee hours.
The Congress leaders asked if the CVC visited the CBI headquarters in the dead of the night and the purpose behind the visit. Was any record or documents removed by him or in his presence?
They asked: “Were any incriminating files and documents removed from the office of CBI director Alok Verma and by whom and why?