NGO Common Cause moves Supreme Court challenging Alok Verma’s ouster as CBI director and M. Nageshwar Rao’s appointment as the agency’s interim head.
New Delhi: NGO Common Cause has moved the Supreme Court, alleging that the Narendra Modi government had attempted to subvert the CBI with its “brazen interference” in the row between the investigative agency’s top two officers.
Moved by Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan, the NGO’s plea seeks the quashing of the government order divesting Alok Verma of his charge as CBI director.
It also challenges the appointment of M. Nageshwar Rao as interim CBI director, and seeks the removal of CBI No. 2 Rakesh Asthana as special director.
According to a report on the legal news portal Live Law, CJI Gogoi asked Bhushan to submit the details of the case, saying the court would look into it.
As the face-off between Asthana and Verma reached the public domain this week with a bribery FIR against the former and an exchange of corruption allegations, both were divested of their duties and sent on leave.
Bhushan moved the plea before Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi for urgent listing, saying Rao’s appointment was “bad in law” and Verma’s ouster in contravention of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, from which the CBI derives its powers.
“Mr Alok Verma has been illegally divested of all the work related to the director, CBI, for mala fide reasons,” Bhushan said.
“It is apparent that the order withdrawing the work has been passed to frustrate the mandate of the Act since Mr Verma could not have been removed before his fixed tenure without consulting the selection committee,” he added.
Verma, who took charge as CBI director in February last year, was due to demit office in February 2019, and a lot of questions have been raised about the Modi government’s decision to remove him in the middle of his tenure.
“Apart from the fact that Mr Nageshwar Rao’s appointment as acting director is bad in law,” the plea states, “there is an online investigation report published on
www.savukkyonline.com, which enumerates various lapses and instances of unprofessional conduct on the part of Mr Nageshwar Rao, which merit further investigation.”
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Bhushan also alleged that Verma had launched a discreet inquiry against Rao when the latter was posted as CBI joint director, Chennai Zone, and ordered the transfer of important cases from the office to the agency’s banking and securities fraud cell of Bengaluru.
He has also sought the “constitution of a special investigation team to look into the recent unprecedented events which have unfolded in past few days and also to investigate the allegations of corruption against the senior officials of the CBI and submit the report before this… court for consequent action”.
CBI vs CBI
The unprecedented churn in the CBI over corruption allegations follows two years of hostilities between director Verma and his deputy Asthana.
After sending the two on leave, the government, on the advice of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), transferred 13 officers said to be in Verma’s camp, including some of his closest confidants.
A.K. Bassi, a superintendent of police-rank officer who was investigating the bribery case against Asthana, was asked to leave for Port Blair with immediate effect, in “public interest”.
In a letter written to the CVC earlier, Asthana had alleged that Bassi, at the behest of Verma, carried out “roving inquiries” about the special director and his family.
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Bhushan should be appreciated for his tireless work.
While appointing Shri Uday Kotak as a stop gap Chairman of the beleaguered ILFS, care was taken to choose someone of integrity, whose name itself would have a calming, reassuring effect.