New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its order on a PIL challenging the appointment of Gujarat cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana as CBI special director.
A bench of Justices R.K. Agrawal and A.M. Sapre said it would pass orders on November 28 on a petition filed by NGO Common Cause. Defending the appointment, attorney-general K.K. Venugopal said Mr Asthana was an outstanding officer who had probed over 40 high profile cases, including the coal allocation, Kingfisher Airlines, AugustaWestland.
He even went to the extent of dragging industrialist Vijay Mallya, who got an affidavit filed through an official against Mr Asthana’s appointment, into the case. The AG added that this petition was an attempt to stop Mr Asthana from pursuing Mr Mallya’s extradition case.
Appearing for NGO, Prashant Bhushan said Mr Asthana’s appointment was illegal as his name had surfaced in a diary recovered during an I-T raid at the offices and premises of Gujarat-based Sterling Biotech Ltd and Sandesara Group of Companies at Mumbai, Vadodara and Ooty.
