CBI officer names seniors, govt officials, minister in plea to SC

MANISH KUMAR SINHA, DIG OF THE ANTIGRAFT BRANCH IN NAGPUR, WAS TRANSFERRED ON OCT 24. HE ALLEGED THAT THE MOVE WAS ARBITRARY, MOTIVATED

NEW DELHI: A senior Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officer supervising the probe against the agency’s special director Rakesh Asthana moved the Supreme Court on Monday against his sudden transfer to Nagpur with an explosive petition that levelled charges against high-ranking government officials, two of his seniors, a minister, even the country’s top vigilance officer.

Manish Kumar Sinha, deputy inspector general (DIG) of anticorruption branch, Nagpur, filed his application demanding a court-monitored probe by a spe- cial investigation team (SIT) into the corruption allegations against Asthana. Sinha was one of the officers transferred on October 24, within hours of Centre asking CBI director Alok Verma and Asthana to proceed on leave until further orders. The two officers have accused each other of being corrupt — Asthana through a complaint to the cabinet secretary in August and Verma through an FIR filed by CBI against Asthana in October.

Sinha, who was also in charge of the investigation into the fraud perpetrated by jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, alleged in the petition that his transfer was “arbitrary, motivated and mala fide, made solely with the purpose and intent to victimise the officer as the investigation revealed cogent evidence against certain powerful persons.”

Sinha’s lawyer Sunil Fernandes mentioned his application before a bench led by CJI Ranjan Gogoi seeking its urgent hearing.