Delhi HC extends Asthana’s protection from arrest till Nov 1
The Delhi High Court on Monday extended reprieve from arrest to CBI’s ousted Special Director Rakesh Asthana until November 1 (Thursday).
By then, the CBI will file its reply on Asthana’s petition, as also on that of arrested DSP Devender Kumar, who want the bribe FIR registered against them to be quashed. A single-member Bench of Najmi Waziri pulled up the CBI for not filing the reply he had sought by Monday, but allowed time on the CBI counsel’s plea that the entire investigation team has been changed and the case files are before the Central Vigilance Commission.
Satish Dagar, SP in CBI's Anti-Corruption Unit III, last week took over the bribery case registered against Asthana from DSP Ajay K Bassi, a confidant of ousted director Alok Verma who was transferred to Port Blair on the night of the CBI shakeout. On Friday, he even issued summons to Hyderabad businessman Satish Babu Sana, whom Bassi had made an approver after he recorded a statement before a Delhi magistrate accusing Asthana of taking bribe from him to close a money laundering case.
Sana, however, did not appear before the CBI on Monday and instead moved a petition in the Supreme Court for interim protection in the case.
On Sunday, CBI's interim director M Nageswara Rao also entrusted the Moin Qureshi money laundering case to Dagar, that was so far were being probed by SP S Kiran, who was working under ousted special
director Rakesh Asthana.
Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan called it a contempt of court. He tweeted: "Despite the SC restraining controversial officer appointed as interim director CBI from taking any major decisions, he has still gone ahead & replaced the officer investigating the Moin Qureshi case, at the heart of the CBI problems. Clear contempt of court."