Most of the 13 CBI officers transferred are from ousted chief Alok Verma’s ‘camp’

Alok Verma | PTI/Ravi Choudhary

A.K. Bassi and A.K. Sharma, who were known to be Alok Verma’s confidants, have been transferred to Port Blair and the ‘defunct’ MDMA unit respectively.

New Delhi: Soon after CBI director Alok Verma and special director Rakesh Asthana were sent on leave by the government at the behest of the Central Vigilance Commission, some of Verma’s closest confidants, as well as many officers said to be in his ‘camp’ were also transferred.

A.K. Bassi, a superintendent-rank officer who was investigating the bribery case against Asthana and was alleged to have been acting at the behest of Verma to carry out “roving inquiries” about the special director and his family, was asked to leave for Port Blair with immediate effect, in “public interest”.

A.K. Sharma, joint director (policy), who is said to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a friend of Verma, was transferred to the Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) unit of the CBI in New Delhi.

The MDMA is considered a defunct body that was set up in 1998 on the recommendations of Justice M.C. Jain Commission to conduct a probe into the conspiracy of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination.

DIG Amit Kumar from Chandigarh will hold additional charge of joint director (policy) now, making him the second most important officer in the CBI, as he is handling the coal scam cases.

One unit, many transfers

A number of the transferred officers were from the same unit — Anti-Corruption-III — and were said to be close to Verma. This is the unit that allegedly leaked information about the ongoing corruption cases to caterer Rakesh Tiwari, who was recently arrested for passing on information to suspected businessmen and bureaucrats in exchange for favours.

S.S. Gurm, additional SP, AC-III, has been sent to Jabalpur, while the unit’s DIG, Manish Kumar Sinha, has been dispatched to Nagpur.

Satish Dagar, an SP-rank officer at the Economic Offences-III unit, who has probed cases against Dera Sachcha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, has now been made responsible for AC-III.

He will report to DIG Tarun Gauba, who has been brought in from Chandigarh to the post of DIG/HoB (head of branch) AC-III. Gauba has investigated Vyapam cases.

In addition, Jasbir Singh, DIG/HoB, SC-I (special crime zone) has been given additional charge of DIG/SU-I (special unit, which falls under the policy division).

At joint director level, V. Murugesan, who was head of zone AC-II, will now hold additional charge of the AC-I (headquarters) unit.

Interestingly, Sai Manohar, a close aide of No.2 Asthana, who was serving as head of zone, JD (joint director), Chandigarh Zone with headquarters in New Delhi, has now been given additional charge of the Special Investigation Team and the TFC (Technical Forensic and Coordination) Zone. This is one of the most important wings of the CBI as it deals with Interpol.