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

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 special 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.

“We have shocking revelations to make,” Fernandes said. The CJI simply remarked: “Nothing shocks us.” A bench led by him is, however, likely to hear Verma’s petition challenging his forced leave on Tuesday.

Sinha was part of the team probing allegations that Asthana took bribe to help a Hyderabadbased businessman, Satish Sana, who alleged that the CBI’s No.2 demanded money to give him a clean chit in cases being investigated against meat exporter Moin Qureshi, who has been accused of money laundering.

Sinha’s petition requests the quashing of his transfer order, which he says was done with a motive to disband the entire team probing the FIR against Asthana.

Sinha’s petition also makes specific allegations against the CVC, KV Chowdhary, who at the instance of the apex court held an enquiry into the bribery allegations against Verma and submitted a report to the court last week.

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