The tussle between two top officers in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken a new turn with the probe agency arresting one of its own officer Devendra Kumar in connection with Moin Qureshi case. Kumar serves as Deputy SP in the Special Investigation Team of CBI's Delhi unit.
The development comes even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi intervened in the high-profile fight. PM Modi on Monday summoned CBI director Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana. On Sunday, the CBI had filed a bribery case against Asthana and a few other officers. The agency booked Asthana for allegedly receiving bribes from middlemen to give relief to a businessman being probed by him in a case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi. A few days ago, Asthana had written to the government listing several charges against Verma.
Earlier in the day, Congress president Rahul Gandhi alleged the CBI was being used as a "weapon of political vendetta" under the Modi government and that the premier investigation agency was on a terminal decline and "at war with itself".
"The PM's blue-eyed boy, Gujarat cadre officer, of Godra SIT fame, infiltrated as No. 2 into the CBI, has now been caught taking bribes," Gandhi tweeted on Monday. "Under this PM, the CBI is a weapon of political vendetta. An institution in terminal decline that's at war with itself," he said.
The Congress chief and his party has been attacking Modi over the appointment of Asthana as CBI special director.
