Major changes in CBI leadership

“The appointment committee of the Cabinet has approved that during the period of the subsistence of the aforesaid interim measure (of sending Asthana and Verma on leave), cited in reference above, M Nageshwar Rao, IPS, presently working as Joint Director, CBI, shall look after duties and functions of Director CBI and shall take over the duties and functions with immediate effect,” Lok Ranjan, Additional Secretary to the Prime Minister-led Appointments Committee, said in a communication. The current order seems to have sidelined all the three top-ranking officials in the CBI, including additional director AK Sharma, who was also named by Asthana in his complaint.
Though the building is open, PTI reported that officials or outsiders were not being allowed as a team of officers was conducting the investigation. The reason behind sealing the entire two floors is because offices of other CBI officers believed to be close to either Verma or Asthana are also located on these floors.
Nageswar Rao, an Odisha cadre Indian Police Service officer of the 1986 batch, would oversee all cases being investigated by Asthana. Before joining IPS, he did his graduation from the Osmania University and further research work at IIT-Madras. Nageswar Rao was first appointed as a sub-divisional police officer in Odisha’s Talcher area, which at that time was a hotbed for coal smuggling and criminal activities, in 1989-90.
Verma-Asthana spat
The case pertains to a bitter spat between Alok Verma and Rakesh Asthana, who was recently booked by the CBI on the basis of claims made by a businessman, Sathish Sana, that he accepted Rs 3 crore as bribe in meat exporter Moin Qureshi case. Interestingly, Asthana had accused CBI Director Alok Verma of interfering in his work two months back. He had also accused Verma of accepting Rs 2 crore from Sana and conspiring against him.
Sana, who was probed by Asthana himself, had alleged he was asked to pay a bribe of Rs 5 crore by Manoj Prasad, an investment banker based in Dubai, to get relief from repeated summons and a clean chit in the Moin Qureshi case. On Sunday, the CBI claimed Sana appeared before a magistrate and said he made payments between December 2017 and October 2018 to Manoj Prasad, who cited his purported connection with Asthana to ensure relief for him. Manoj Prasad was held on October 16 when he was returning from Dubai, though the FIR against Asthana does not mention that he ever paid the bribe to Asthana.
The Indian government has issued a formal statement on the matter:
The grave allegations of corruption by senior functionaries of CBI one against another, which has been widely reported in media, has vitiated the official eco-system of the organization. The environment of faction feud has reached its peak in the CBI leading to a potential loss of credibility and reputation of the Premier Investigating Agency of the Government It also vitiated the working environment of the organization which has deep and visible impact on the overall governance.
1. The CVC, on receipt of a complaint on 24th August, 2018 containing various allegations against the senior functionaries of the CBI has served three separate notices (under section 11 of CVC Act, 2003) on 11th September, 2018 upon the Director, CBI to produce files and documents before the Commission on 14″‘ September, 2018. Various opportunities have been given to produce such records and after several adjournments, though CBI assured the Commission on 24th September, 2018 to furnish the records within three weeks. Despite repeated assurances and reminders, the Director, CBI failed to furnish the records / files before the Commission. The CVC has observed that Director, CBI has not been cooperating in making available records / files sought by the Commission relating to serious allegations.
2. The CVC has also observed that the Director, CBI has been non-cooperative with the Commission, non-compliant with the requirements / directions of the Commission and has created willful obstructions in the functioning of the Commission which is a Constitutional body.
3. Considering the extra-ordinary and unprecedented circumstances which has emerged, the Central Vigilance Commission in exercise of its powers (section 8 of CVC Act, 2003) of superintendence over the functioning of DPSE (CBI), in so far as it relates to the investigation of offences alleged to have been committed under Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. has passed orders divesting Shri Alok Kumar Verma, Director, CBI and Shri Rakesh Asthana, Spl. Director, CBI of the functions, power, duty and supervisory role in respect of cases already registered and/or required to be registered and/or being inquired/enquired/investigated under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, until further orders.
4. The Government of India having carefully examined and evaluated the material made available to it, and being satisfied that an extra-ordinary and unprecedented situation has arisen which demands that Government of India shall exercise its powers under Section 4(2) of the DPSE Act. The Government of India has evaluated the material before it and in the interest of equality, fair play and principles of natural justice,decided to divest Shri Alok Kumar Verma, Director, CBI and Shri Rakesh Asthana, Spl Director, CBI of their functions, power, duty and supervisory role in any manner as Director, CBI and Spl. Director, CBI respectively.
5. This has been done as an interim measure and will subsist “till the CVC concludes its inquiry into all issues which have given rise to the present extra-ordinary and unprecedented situation and till the CVC and/or Government of India takes an appropriate decision in accordance with the law as regards to the measures to be adopted as a consequence thereof”.
6. In view of the above background, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved that during the period of such interim measure, Shri M. Nageshwar Rao, IPS, presently working as Joint Director, CBI shall look after the duties and functions of Director, CBI with immediate effect.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has insulted the Constitution by showing the door to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director Alok Verma in a midnight drama, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said yesterday, in a packed press conference in New Delhi. Rahul also claimed that Alok Verma was sacked because the CBI was set to begin probe into PM Modi’s role in the Rafale deal.
The Rafale Deal Controversy is a political controversy in India related to the purchase of 36 multi role fighter aircraft for a price estimated to be worth Rs 58,000 crore by The Defence Ministry of India from France’s Dassault Aviation. Origin of the deal lies in the Indian Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA) competition. The purchase of these aircraft, making it India’s single largest defense deal.
“The CBI director was going to begin an investigation in the role of the PM in the Rafale deal and that’s why he was removed. Understand the PM’s mental state. He told the country he is the ‘chowkidar’. Then he signed the Rafale deal. He realises the day the CBI begins an inquiry, he will have to step down as the prime minister,” Rahul Gandhi said, in reply to a question.
Rahul alleged that this midnight removal established the fear that every Indian institution would protect the prime minister in the Rafale scam. “The prime minister will attack every institution to insulate himself, and we will do whatever is needed to expose him,” he said.
The Gandhi scion further said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had disrespected the Constitution, the Chief Justice of India and the Leader of the Opposition by removing the CBI director.
The CBI director is appointed in consultation with the prime minister, the Chief Justice of India and the leader of the opposition.
Asked how he knew that the CBI director was sent on leave at 2 am because of the Rafale deal, he said, “I came to know just like the whole country did. This is not the question. The youth should come to know that the prime minister put Rs 30,000 crore in Ambani’s pocket. The precipitation was the complaints of former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie.”
Earlier, days before Alok Verma was sent on leave, he had met Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who had given him a written application to investigate the Rafale deal.
Rahul also claimed that the CBI director’s room was sealed and increment documents were seized or suppressed. He, however, did not provide any proof to support that.
A corruption scandal, a bitter turf battle between its top functionaries, and an unprecedented purge in its wake have caused irreparable damage to the credibility of the country’s premier investigative agency. Can the CBI and the Narendra Modi government recover from this setback?
Only time can tell.