CVC GIVES PROBE REPORT ON CBI’S VERMA; NEXT HEARING FRIDAY

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court deferred hearing Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director Alok Verma’s petition challenging the government’s move to divest him of his powers to Friday, November 16, after there was a delay by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) in handing over a report on allegations of bribery against Verma to the court.

The apex court, in its October 31 order, directed the CVC to probe corruption charges against Verma under the supervision of retired Supreme Court judge AK Patnaik, and submit its report in two weeks. The deadline ended on Sunday.

But it was only during Monday’s hearing that solicitor general Tushar Mehta passed on the report in a sealed cover to the bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi. The bench, expressing its dissatisfaction over the delay, told the government that it was late. CJI Gogoi said, “A Supreme Court registrar sat till 11.30 am on a holiday just to receive the report.”

“Despite that, the report was not filed. If the report would have been filed we would have had the opportunity to go through it,” he said.

Mehta, appearing for CVC, explained the delay saying “officers of CVC went to the Supreme Court (on Sunday) to file the report but they were late by an hour because they were getting the report bound.”

A report by acting CBI director Nageshwar Rao explaining decisions he has taken so far was also given to the court in compliance with its earlier directions.

Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for NGO Common Cause, objected to the acting CBI director taking decisions despite the top court order against it.

“The spirit of our earlier order is that the acting CBI director will not take a policy decision,” Chief Justice Gogoi said.

Verma was divested of his responsibilities on the intervening night of October 23 and 24 after his running feud with his deputy Rakesh Asthana threw the federal investigation agency into disarray. Asthana wrote to the cabinet secretary on August 24, alleging Verma’s interference in sensitive cases and claiming that the director had taken a bribe. The cabinet secretary asked CVC to look into the matter.

On October 15, CBI, in turn, filed an FIR against Asthana accusing him of corruption.

Verma challenged the CVC order divesting him of his responsibilities before the Supreme Court, resulting in the Patnaikmonitored time-bound probe.

Both Verma and Asthana have appeared before CVC.

The Congress party’s leader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, too has filed a petition in the matter, saying he should be heard because he is a member of the three-member committee that selects the CBI chief.

The other two panel members are the Prime Minister and the CJI. Kharge is part of the panel as the leader of the largest Opposition party in Parliament’s Lower House.