'CBI officer manipulated SC order to stop transfer’

Ajay Kumar Bassi, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officer manipulated a Supreme Court judgment, even "rephrased a few word" to get his transfer to Port Blair cancelled and the agency's former chief Alok Verma without verifying acted on it in haste, complicating the situation, said the Central Administrative Tribunal.

Bassi had moved the tribunal against his transfer order to Port Blair on October 24, 2018. He said he was transferred out of CBI and then on January 9, 2019, the order of transfer was withdrawn. He again contented that another order was passed on January 10, 2019 declaring the order dated January 9, 2019, as non-est.

CAT stated that to convince Verma to stop his transfer, Bassi "did a calculated manipulation". He has also replaced the words "However we", with the words the "Hon'ble Court" from the SC judgement.

On the conduct of the Bassi, the tribunal stated: "If this is the level of manipulation by an officer of a reputed organization like CBI, that too in respect of the judgement of the Hon'ble Supreme Court, one can easily understand the gravity of the matter."

The tribunal questioned Verma's decision of cancelling the transfer order. It said, "What is more disturbing is that an officer who headed the reputed organisation like CBI has acted upon a representation of that nature, and has chosen to pass order on the same day, with jet speed."

It also stated, "...he did not choose to verify whether the portion extracted in the representation of the applicant is the same as the one contained in the judgement."