Midnight purge at CBI: Alok Verma, Rakesh Asthana sent on leave

New Delhi: In an unprecedented development in the ongoing “bitter feud” between CBI director Alok Verma and the agency’s second-in-command Rakesh Asthana, both top cops of the country’s premier investigating agency were stripped of their powers by the Central government and sent on leave. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi late Tuesday night named joint director M. Nageswar Rao, a 1986-batch Odisha cadre IPS officer, as the interim director of the CBI with “immediate effect”.

Soon after taking charge at around 11.30 pm on Tuesday, Mr Rao transfe-rred 13 officers with one of them being sent to Port Blair and also constituted a fresh team to probe bribery and extortion charges against Mr Asthana. Most of the officers shifted were part of teams probing Mr Asthana’s alleged corrupt practices.

Mr Rao directed officials to take control all crucial files as sought by the CVC and to ensure no material is tampered with. The CBI sleuths have now started scrutinising electronic evidence, including call detail records, collected by them in the case against Mr Asthana. The agency may also collect a voice sample of Mr Asthana for further probe.

A CBI director usually has a fixed tenure of two years and CBI chief Mr Verma’s innings in the top post was scheduled to last till January 2019. The unprecedented shake-up in the CBI’s 55-year-history left Mr Verma aggrieved, forcing him to knock the doors of the Supreme Court on Wednesday and challenge the government’s decision after which the top court agreed to hear his plea on Friday. Mr Verma said in his petition that divesting him of his powers “overnight” amounts to the Centre’s interference in the independence of the agency whose probes against “high functionaries” may not take the line desirable to the government.

The government’s dramatic move against the two top CBI officers on Tuesday night came hours after the Central Vigilance Commissi-on(CVC) recommended, around 8.30 pm, that Mr Verma and Mr Asthana be sent on leave and a special investigation team (SIT) be formed to probe corruption allegations against them. The CVC, headed by K.V. Chowdary, has superintendence over the CBI in cases of corruption.

As the rapid overnight changes in the CBI sparked criticism from the Congress and other Opposition parties, finance minister Arun Jaitley put up a spirited defence of the government action.

Mr Jaitley said that the government’s decision to remove the CBI’s top officers is based on the CVC’s recommendations, asserting it is absolutely essential to restore the agency’s institutional integrity and credibility.

There was high drama at the CBI headquarters at CGO complex in central Delhi on Tuesday night. “Around 10.30 pm teams of about 15-16 officers entered the headquarters’ compound in Innova and Ertiga vehicles. A white sedan carrying new interim director Mr Rao followed them. The CBI staff was clueless about the top-level shake-up taking place,” sources said while explaining the sequence of events.

According to sources, immediately after the CVC’s recommendation, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval summoned officers in charge of appointments to the PMO and asked them to put out an order sending the CBI chief and Verma on leave.

The government also came out with a detailed statement on Wednesday saying that wilful obstructions caused by Mr Verma in the functioning of the CVC, which was looking into complaints of corruption against him, and a “faction feud” with Mr Asthana that “vitiated” the environment in the agency resulted in the powers of both the officers being divested.

Both Mr Verma and Mr Asthana have accused each other of corruption and interference. On Sunday, Mr Verma was called to the PMO where he met senior officials to address concerns regarding the functioning of the agency.

An FIR against Mr Asthana was registered by the agency on October 15 on the basis of a statement of businessman Sathish Sana who alleged that he paid a bribe through middlemen to get clean chit in a case probed by the CBI.

The SIT constituted by interim CBI chief Mr Rao to probe the case against Mr Asthana will include superintendent of Police Satish Dagar and his senior DIG Tarun Gauba, who will report to joint director V. Murugesan, a CBI order said.