Alok Verma, the CBI Director, who is scheduled to remain in office till January next year, is engaged in a bitter fight with Special Director of the agency Rakesh Asthana and both sides have been levelling allegation against each other in public, a trend which is unheard-of in the history of 77 years of the organisation.
The internal conflict in the CBI, between chief Alok Verma and de facto number 2 CBI special director Rakesh Asthana, escalated with the latter writing to the government about a ‘false FIR’ filed against him by his own organisation.
According to NDTV, Asthana has written to the Centre stating that a false FIR had been lodged against him by the CBI.
Alok Verma, the CBI Director, who is scheduled to remain in office till January next year, is engaged in a bitter fight with Special Director of the agency Rakesh Asthana and both sides have been levelling allegation against each other in public, a trend which is unheard-of in the history of 77 years of the organisation.
Asthana’s name came up in a complaint of Satish Sana, a Hyderabad-based businessman who was being investigated in case involving Moin Qureshi, who was arrested for money laundering.
Sana told CBI he paid a Rs 2 crore to Rakesh Asthana over a 10-month period to ensure he wasn’t named in the CBI case against Moin Qureshi.
Asthana claims that the complaint is the result of a conspiracy between him and certain directors of the CBI and ED.
He has also claimed that CBI chief and his Chief Vigilance Officer Arun Sharma have participated in corrupt activities. Asthana claimed that the CBI chief had been Rs 2 crore by Sana to scuttle the probe.
Asthana, 1984 batch IPS officer of the Gujarat cadre heads the SIT probing Qureshi. In 2017, the Centre had dismissed suggestions that that Alok Verma, Director of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was opposed to the appointment of his subordinate Rakesh Asthana as Special Director of CBI. Asthana was appointed on October 22 in 2017.
Attorney General KK Venugopal, representing Centre, placed the minutes of the meeting dated October 21 where the elevation of Asthana was discussed. "The selection of Asthana was totally unanimous. There was no dissent. He is eminently suitable to hold the position of Special Director, CBI. He used to overlook 11 zones and has supervised investigations of at least 40 scams including Agusta Westland case, Hassan Ali, Moin Qureshi, Paramount Airways, chit fund scam, etc."
Earlier, on September 26, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had been contemplating disciplinary action against Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director Alok Kumar Verma for misusing his "official position and the organisation" to target junior colleague Special Director Rakesh Asthana.
Sources say DoPT is to issue show cause notice to Verma seeking explanation about "misconduct" on his part for using his official position to personally and publically target and intimidate the junior officer for making complaints against him at Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).
In a formal statement on September 21, the CBI had said that the special director was being probed in six different case. The CBI had registered an FIR against Qureshi in February 2017 on charges of being part of a nexus with the agency’s former chief AP Singh for ‘settling’ CBI cases.
The statement stated: “Certain allegations have been made in a newspaper published from New Delhi referring to a complaint filed before the Central Vigilance Commission against the Director CBI. The newspaper story has subsequently been carried in several electronic channels. It is unfortunate that baseless and frivolous allegations are being made publically without proper verification of facts to malign the image of the Director CBI and intimidate the officials of the organisation," the statement from CBI read.
"It is stated that the CVC has sought for certain case files from the CBI on the basis of a complaint filed by the Special Director, CBI. In its response to the CVC letter, the Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of CBI has pointed out that the complaint is an attempt by the complainant to intimidate the officers of CBI who are investigating his role in at least half a dozen cases. The CBI said that the CVC should opine on the maintainability of the complaint and consider it malicious and frivolous in order to protect the integrity of the organisation," the statement added.
Earlier, the Modi government was understood to be unhappy with CBI director Alok Verma for meeting former Union Minister Arun Shourie and lawyer Prashant Bhushan who demanded a probe into the alleged corruption in the Rafale deal.
Shourie and Bhushan had met the CBI Director, submitted documents and demanded a probe into alleged corruption in the Rafale aircraft deal and offset contract.
"This was perhaps for the first time that politicians have met the CBI Director in his office. Such a meeting is rare," the functionary said, indicating that the government has not taken the meeting kindly.
Buttressing his point, the functionary claimed, in normal circumstances, when a politician seeks appointment with the CBI chief, he or she is advised to submit complaints or any other documents at the reception of the agency headquarters.
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