Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge writes to Modi and CJI Gogoi, says there is a sinister agenda behind govt sending CBI director Alok Verma on leave.
New Delhi: Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge Thursday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the row in the Central Bureau of Investigation, slamming the government for its ‘overnight decision’ to send director Alok Verma on leave and transfer many of his close associates.
Kharge said he had sent a copy of the letter to Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi too, and that his party would seek legal opinion on the course of action if it doesn’t get a satisfactory reply from the PM.
“We will consult legal experts and take a decision depending on the reply we get,” Kharge said.
Sleepless nights over Rafale
Stating that he was “constrained to write this letter in light of the distressing events that have taken place over the last couple of days”, Kharge said the midnight ‘purge’ at the CBI showed that the Modi government was spending sleepless nights over Rafale.
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“They were perhaps dreaming of Rafale scam and of their friends who have escaped the country with loans and couldn’t sleep. That’s why they took this decision overnight. They didn’t even consult us as a courtesy,” said Kharge, the leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha.
“The de-facto transfer/divesting of authority of the director CBI, is illegal, malafide, and points to a sinister agenda to scuttle important investigations, including into the Rafale deal.”
He pointed out that this action could not be taken without the approval of the selection committee — comprising the PM, the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha and either the CJI or a senior Supreme Court judge — that had picked the director.
“It is a matter of record that no such meeting of the ‘Selection Committee’ was convened to deliberate on this issue as prescribed under law,” he said.
Kharge also questioned the alleged “snooping” by the government and asked it to come clean.
“The state of disarray and arbitrariness that has characterised the functioning of key institutions such as the Central Vigilance Commission, the Central Bureau of Investigation and above all, your own office, is unprecedented in our nation’s history,” he told the Prime Minister.
‘Unwanted intrusion into a criminal investigation’
Kharge claimed that the actions taken by the government “in early hours of October 24, in transferring the director and his entire team, amounts to a grave violation of the law, the Supreme Court’s directions on the subject and the Constitution of India”.
The letter also questioned the move to send both the top CBI officers on leave.
“It is of the utmost surprise that following their reported meeting with you, both officers have been sent on leave,” he said.
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“First, there are no visible grounds to transfer the director. The only plausible explanation for this desperate and hasty move is an attempt to scuttle the ongoing investigations into the Special Director’s case and other cases that might cause significant embarrassment to your government.
“No one — neither you nor the CVC — enjoy the requisite authority to interfere with the terms of service vested in the director. In this regard, I draw your attention to the relevant section in the governing law i.e. the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946.”
Kharge also said that the Prime Minister “may have forced the appointment of your chosen individual as a Special Director upon the institution, the Director is appointed by way of a statutory process that is transparent and cannot be substituted by way of executive discretion”.
He termed the entire matter as a “serious, illegal and unwanted intrusion by the PM and other governmental functionaries into an ongoing criminal investigation”.