PM Modi steps in as CBI chief, deputy’s battle escalates

New Delhi: The on-going ugly fight between the top two officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation reached Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office on Monday as he summoned director Alok Verma and his number two, special director Rakesh Asthana, to “get details of the current happenings”.

Though CBI sources neither confirmed nor denied the meeting, a PMO official was quoted in a report as saying, “PM wants to know the full facts of what is happening.”

Both Mr Verma and Mr Asthana have accused each other of corruption and interference. On Sunday, Mr Verma was called to the PMO where he met senior officials to address concerns regarding the functioning of the agency.

Last month, the CBI had filed an FIR against Mr Asthana on a Rs 3.88-crore bribe complaint from Hyderabad-based businessman Sathish Babu Sana, a witness in the money laundering case pertaining to meat exporter Moin Qureshi.

The meeting called by the PM to douse fire in India’s premier investigation agency came on a day when the CBI arrested its deputy superintendent of police, Devender Kumar, who worked with Mr Asthana and has been accused of forging statements against its chief, Mr Verma, and other senior officers.

Mr Asthana, a Gujarat cadre IPS officer, was dubbed as “the PM’s blue-eyed boy” in a tweet by Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

The CBI, Mr Gandhi said, was being used as a “weapon of political vendetta” under the Modi government and that the premier investigation agency was on a terminal decline and “at war with itself”.

Mr Asthana is heading the special investigation team and is in charge of several sensitive cases, such as loan fraud by business tycoon Vijay Mallya and AgustaWestland chopper scam.

Taking to Twitter, the Congress president cited a media report where Mr Asthana has been named as an accused in a bribery case.

“The PM’s blue-eyed boy, Gujarat cadre officer, of Godra SIT fame, infiltrated as No. 2 into the CBI, has now been caught taking bribes,” Mr Gandhi tweeted. “Under this PM, the CBI is a weapon of political vendetta. An institution in terminal decline that’s at war with itself,” he said.

The ruling BJP on Monday maintained that people’s faith in an institution like the CBI might get shaken by the ongoing tussle.

Asked about the agency registering a case against its own special director, BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi pointed out that there is also a report against its director, Alok Verma, a reference to Mr Asthana’s complaint against him.

“There are two reports, one is against the director and another against the special director. We would like people’s faith in the institution of the CBI to continue,” she said.

Mr Kumar, the CBI deputy superintendent arrested on Monday, was earlier the investigation officer in the case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi. He faces charges of forgery in recording the statement of Mr Sana, who had alleged that he paid bribes to CBI officers, including Mr Asthana, to get relief in the case, sources said.

It has been alleged that Mr Asthana favoured businessman Mr Sana after he received a bribe by middleman and investment banker Manoj Prasad. Mr Prasad was arrested when he visited India on October 16, 2018.

It was earlier alleged that Mr Sana’s statement was recorded on September 26 by the investigating team headed by Mr Asthana. But on review, it emerged that on Sept. 26 Mr Sana was in Hyderabad. The CBI said it has evidence in the form of hotel bills, etc. which prove his presence in Hyderabad on that day.

In its FIR against Mr Asthana, the CBI has claimed that Mr Sana told a magistrate that he had paid bribe to the special director over a 10-month period, beginning December last year.

The CBI carried out searches at Mr Kumar’s residence and his office at the agency headquarters on Saturday and Sunday, and claimed to have seized his mobile phones and iPads.

The CBI claims that nine phone calls were made by Manoj Prasad’s brother Somesh Prasad immediately after his arrest, including conversations with Mr Asthana.

Somesh Prasad has also been charged by the CBI. Manoj Prasad and Somesh Prasad are the sons of a former officer of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). The CBI is also investigating the role of a RAW official.

The feud between Mr Verma and his deputy blew up in August when Mr Asthana complained to the CVC that the CBI chief had taken bribe from Mr Sana but had framed him.

Mr Asthana’s letter to the CVC also listed 10 other instances of corruption, criminal misconduct and interference in the investigation of sensitive cases by the CBI director.

Earlier this month, Mr Asthana also accused the CBI chief of trying to frame him in the case of Gujarat-based company, Sterling Biotech.

Sterling Biotech is being investigated for a huge loan default. It was during this probe that Mr Asthana’s name allegedly popped up in a diary in 2011 indicating receipt of `3.88 crore bribe.

The CBI infighting began last year when the director objected to the appointment of Mr Asthana as his number two, citing the Sterling Biotech case.

Mr Asthana, who was the CBI’s acting chief then, was elevated nevertheless, after another officer was reportedly transferred overnight to the home ministry to make way for him.

In 2016, Common Cause objected to Mr Asthana’s appointment as CBI special director as his name figured in a 2011 diary seized from Sterling Biotech — a company being probed by the CBI for money laundering — as the alleged recipient of payments worth Rs 3.88 crore

Mr Asthana, a 1984 batch IPS officer, had, as inspector-general of police (Gujarat), overseen the initial probe into the Godhra train burning. As a superintendent of police in CBI in 1997, he had arrested Lalu Prasad Yadav in the fodder scam.

Mr Asthana is being probed in six cases, . Reports claim Mr Asthana has always landed plush positions because of his proximity with the top brass in the Modi government.