Twitter
Advertisement

Keep your ‘Kilkenny cat’ fight private, Supreme Court tells Alok Kumar Verma, Rakesh Asthana

The government accused the officers of taking their ugly fight to the media.

Latest News
article-main
Alok Kumar Verma, Rakesh Asthana
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that to save the CBI from public ridicule it decided to "immobilize" CBI director Alok Kumar Verma and send him and special director Rakesh Asthana on forced leave. The government accused the officers of taking their ugly fight to the media.

Attorney General KK Venugopal referred to the fight between Verma and Asthana as a fight between two "Kilkenny cats", an expression borrowed from an old Irish tale of two cats who fought until only their tails were left. "It was best if they had kept their fight within domestic sphere and not let it out in public domain. News about their fight began to appear since July 2018.

"We acted in October, soon after Asthana filed a complaint against Verma on August 24. Had we not acted, only God knows where the fight between the two officers would have ended?"

The bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph wished to know from Centre what objective material was available in public domain. A-G Venugopal said, "It was public knowledge. TV Channels had a field day reporting on it and all of us watched with amazement the fight between the top officers of the top most probe agency."

The bench asked Venugopal whether it had authority to divest CBI director of supervising investigation over cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Without going into the technicalities, A-G said, "We looked at the events in totality and took immediate action as the institution of CBI was getting affected." He clarified that the decision on Verma cannot be termed as transfer as he continued to remain at the same designation and place enjoying all perks associated with his post.

After Venugopal, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) commenced arguments and will resume again on Thursday.

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement