PMO intervenes as the big CBI war turns murkier

As murky details continue to spillover from the country’s premier probe agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which arrested its own deputy superintendent of police Divender Kumar on Monday for falsification of records in the Moin Qureshi corruption case, there is dismay at the top level in the government. 

Despite the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) expressing its strong disapproval to both incumbent director Alok Verma and special director Rakesh Asthana, the duo are continuing to dig in their heels. 

Sources revealed that Asthana, against whom the CBI has registered an FIR accusing him of corruption in the Qureshi case, is mulling legal options. Asthana may approach the court to get the charges against him quashed. Asthana is accused of accepting bribe from a businessman who was under probe in the Qureshi case. Verma, on his part, has refused to cool down on the issue and the CBI is going ahead in full steam against Asthana in the case.

The fight is far from over as Verma's own role has come under the scanner of the Central Vigilance Commission, the supervisory body of the CBI, after Asthana's long list of complaints against him.

The waters got more muddied as sources in the CBI said Kumar was working alongside Asthana in the Special Investigation Team probing some high profile cases. CBI sources said the role of other officers of the SIT, then supervising the Qureshi case, are also under the scanner. 

The probe agency has accused Kumar of fabricating a statement dated September 26 quoting Hyderabad-businessman Satish Sana as saying that during June 2018, he had discussed his case with one of his old friends C.M. Ramesh, a Rajya Sabha member, who assured him that he would talk to the director concerned. 

"Subsequently, when met with Ramesh, he told that he had met CBI Director personally regarding my case and examination by CBI. Ramesh also informed that I will not be called by again in this case. Since from June onwards, Iwas not called by CBI. I was under the impression that investigation against me is completed," the statement said

The CBI has said that Kumar fabricated this statement as an afterthought to corroborate the ''baseless allegations made by CBI special director Asthana against director CBI Alok Verma to the CVC.'' 

The IO fabricating a statement is a serious matter and has severe repercussions, said a former CBI official, explaining that if the role of the investigating officers in the CBI has come under cloud, there is a possibility of other cases being probed also coming under cloud. 

Government sources said even as the CBI director has sought Asthana's immediate repatriation to parent cadre, the fact that there are counter allegations against the incumbent director has also caught the attention of the PMO which is likely to examine the tenability of continuance till the incumbent retires in February.