Supreme Court grants protection to CBI whistle-blower

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Hyderabad Police to provide adequate security to Satish Sana, the original complainant in the alleged bribery case against CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana.

A three-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Uday Lalit and K. M. Joseph, however, refused to stay the CBI summons against Sana. The Bench also rejected his plea for recording of his statement in the presence of former apex court judge A.K. Patnaik, who is supervising the probe against Director Alok Verma.

Sana, on whose complaint an FIR was registered against the CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana, had moved the apex court seeking police protection and a stay on the notice issued by the agency summoning him for interrogation.

Hyderabad based businessman Satish Sana had contended that Asthana accepted a bribe of `2 Crore by way of consideration for giving Sana a clean chit in the case relating to meat trader Moin Qureshi, resulting in the registration of a CBI FIR against Asthana.

On October 23, while the CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma was divested of his powers by orders of the CVC as well as the Central government, Asthana was sent on a leave, the interim charge of the Director’s office being assigned to Nageswara Rao. Meanwhile CBI Officer A.K. Bassi, who was investigating the case against Rakesh Asthana, has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking probe by a SIT into the allegations against Asthana.

Bassi, the deputy of CBI Director Alok Verma, was taken off investigation and transferred to Port Blair, Andamans, in a controversial order passed on October 24 by Nageshwar Rao, the officer who was given the charge of CBI Director. Mr Bassi has challenged the transfer order and claimed that he has gathered evidence against Asthana.