New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has given a clean chit to its former special director Rakesh Asthana in a bribery case registered against him by former director Alok Verma.
RAW chief Samant Kumar Goel and CBI officer Devender Kumar, both named in the case, have also been absolved of all charges, ThePrint has learnt.
The other key accused in the case, middleman Manoj Prasad, has been named in the charge-sheet, a source in the CBI told ThePrint.
Another alleged middleman Somesh Prasad will be investigated, the source added.
While Somesh is in Dubai, Manoj was arrested by the CBI in October last year.
On 30 May 2019, the Delhi High Court had given the CBI three months’ time to file its report in the case but the agency asked for an extension. Another extension was sought in October last year.
Asthana, a 1984-batch Gujarat cadre officer, has been involved in investigating some high-profile cases such as the Sabarmati Express fire incident in Godhra in 2002. As superintendent of police in the CBI, he also arrested Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in the fodder scam in 1997.
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The case
On 4 October 2018, a Hyderabad-based businessman, Sana Satish, who was one of the suspects in the Moin Qureshi corruption case, alleged that he paid Rs 2.95 crore to Asthana through middlemen Somesh and Manoj, to get the agency off his back.
Satish alleged that he paid the money to three men over 10 months to remain off the CBI’s radar. He also said he paid Rs 25 lakh to another middleman at Somesh’s behest to avoid appearing for questioning before the CBI.
Following this complaint, the CBI registered a case against Asthana as accused number one and deputy superintendent of police-rank CBI officer Devender Kumar as well as the Prasad duo. At this time, Alok Verma was the director of the agency.
This then led to a bitter feud that played out in the open between Asthana and Verma, with both accusing each other of corruption.
It then led to unprecedented developments, with the government ordering a series of transfers overnight on 23 October 2018, also removing both Asthana and Verma.
Since then Verma has been sacked while Asthana has been transferred to the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security.
Counter allegations against Verma
Following these developments, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) was given the responsibility to investigate allegations made by Satish against the CBI and its officers.
In a letter to the vigilance commission, meanwhile, Asthana listed 10 cases where he alleged Verma tried to influence the investigation.
Asthana alleged that Satish claimed to have paid a bribe of Rs 2 crore to Verma to avoid any action by the CBI.
He also alleged that when Satish was called in for questioning in February 2018, Verma restricted Asthana from examining him. He added that Verma also tried to influence the investigation in the IRCTC scam involving Lalu Prasad, saying searches in the cases were called off at the last moment.
Asthana also alleged that Verma asked him to exclude the names of suspects from the IRCTC scam FIR.
He claimed while processing the complaint against Lalu Prasad, who was also the former railways minister, CBI officers had unanimously recommended the registration of a regular case, something that Verma opposed.
Other cases listed by Asthana in which Verma allegedly interfered included the coal block allocation scam, Ranchi bank fraud case and Haryana land acquisition case.
Asthana also alleged that the CBI director sent teams to Vadodara, Surat and Ahmedabad to dig out information against him, without the government’s permission, as is mandated by the Prevention of Corruption Act for investigations against a public servant of his rank.
He alleged that despite his name not featuring in the Sterling Biotech FIR, “an officer of doubtful integrity”, Ajay Bassi, was asked to keep a watch over him by Verma.
The CVC in its report has already declared Satish as an unreliable witness.
Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate in July 2019 arrested Satish for allegedly purchasing shares worth Rs 50 lakh on behalf of Moin Qureshi. Until his arrest, Satish was a witness in the CBI’s case.
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