NO CORRUPTION ALLEGATIONS ON OUSTED CBI CHIEF: PATNAIK

NEW DELHI: The former Supreme Court judge who supervised the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) inquiry against ousted Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director Alok Verma said on Saturday that no “allegations of corruption” were made against Verma by a witness, as had been claimed by his deputy Rakesh Asthana in connection with a case against controversial meat exporter Moin Qureshi.

“There was no allegation against Verma. Sana Satish Babu never said he paid money to Verma,” justice Patnaik said over the phone.

One of the main lines of investigation of the CVC was Asthana’s allegation that Verma accepted ₹2 crore from Babu, a Hyderabadbased businessman, to ensure he wasn’t indicted in the case against Qureshi.

Asthana levelled the allegations in a letter written to the cabinet secretary on August 24.

On October 15, the Central Bureau of Investigation registered a first information report in which it said a ₹5 crore deal had been struck with two middlemen on Asthana’s behalf to protect Babu from CBI action in a case in which he was being investigated along with Qureshi.

Justice Patnaik asserted that the findings of the vigilance commission enquiry report were not his, as Verma mentioned in a letter on Friday in which he said he would not take up his new posting as director general, fire services, civil defence and home guards.

“I simply supervised the enquiry,” Patnaik said.

The former top court judge felt that the selection panel headed by