An extortion racket in the CBI?     

The ‘revolt’ in the CBI was hardly an overnight affair. Both the CBI director, Alok Verma, and the special director, Rakesh Asthana, had been taking potshots at each other since September and leaking to the media various incriminating details against each other. If the Verma camp alleged that Asthana was guilty of accepting a bribe of Rupees two crore, the Asthana camp retaliated with the allegation that the director had been paid a bribe of Rupees three crore.

Neither side apparently had enough evidence to back their claims. But curiously, the Government and especially the PMO appeared paralysed into inaction. Said an exasperated former CBI official, “Both of them should have been summoned, their heads bumped against the other and sent on leave.” The retired officer felt that had the PMO threatened to send both of them to the boondocks, the issue would not have got completely out of hand.

But the Prime Minister, it is claimed, read out the riot act to the two officers on the afternoon of Monday, October 22, the day after the CBI registered a case of bribery against special director Rakesh Asthana on the basis of an FIR filed by Hyderabad businessman Sathish Babu Sana. Recalling how the then Law minister in the UPA, Ashwani Kumar, was pulled up by the Supreme Court and had to resign after it became known that the minister had summoned the then CBI director with the file notings of a case, observers wondered if it was right for the Prime Minister to ‘intervene’ after a case had been registered. “Too little and too late,” exclaimed CBI insiders who wondered what took the PM so long.

On Monday, the day after the case was registered against Asthana, a hashtag #SupportRakeshAsthana began trending on Twitter. People noticed that a website hindurashtra10.com had popped up for a day to bat for Asthana and thereafter fell silent. Most of the Twitter handles used to drum up support for Asthana were also new users. Who were behind the show of support is anybody’s guess.

The Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) was informed of the charges against Asthana as far back as in July, 2018. Asthana claims to have replied to the charges by July 16. On September 21, the CBI informed the Central Vigilance Commission that it was inquiring six cases of corruption against the special director. This followed Asthana’s August 24 missive to the Cabinet Secretary listing a dozen charges against the CBI director.

On October 4, Hyderabad businessman Sathish Babu Sana recorded his statement against Asthana before a magistrate. He reiterated his statement on October 15, when the FIR was lodged. The CBI instituted a RC (Regular Case) on October 20/ 21, with Asthana as accused number one. The very next day, it arrested the accused number two , DSP Devender Kumar. Both Kumar and Asthana moved Delhi High Court on October 23 for quashing the FIR against them and the court ordered status quo and no coercive action against Asthana till October 29 when it will hear the CBI next.

But this is just one of the six cases against Asthana. He is also accused of helping two businessmen trying to obtain citizenship of St. Kitts. A Preliminary Enquiry has been instituted in a Haryana land acquisition case. Asthana has also been accused of inducting tainted officers into the CBI, of unauthorisedly representing the director in his absence and inaction in a bribery case involving an ED official from Chandigarh.

But, by far the most serious allegation against him is related to his links with the Sterlight Biotech Group of Vadodara. Enforcement Directorate (ED) had conducted searches in the premises of directors of Sterlite Biotech Group in Vadodara and had recovered diaries which mentioned the name of Asthana and benefits given to him. It seems the entries suggested that family members of Asthana were using private chartered flights arranged by the Group. It was alleged that the Group employed Asthana’s son and lent its farmhouse for his daughter’s wedding.

Asthana had, in September, dismissed reports of internal inquiries against him by saying that he had received no summon or any notice of an inquiry and no permission had been sought to prosecute him as was mandatory in law. Not only was there no inquiry pending against him, sources close to him had maintained, but it was the CBI director Verma who was guilty of corruption and impeding his functioning, he alleged.

CBI had, in fact, filed a case against Sterling Biotech in October last year, months after the directors of the Group helped Asthana host his daughter’s wedding at Vadodara. Engaged in real estate and port development, the Group was alleged to have floated 37 firms in the United States alone besides scores of other companies.

Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara, Chetan Jayantibhai Sandesara, Deepti Sandesara, Mayuriben Hiteshbhai Patel, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit and others were accused of defrauding a consortium of Indians banks of Rs 5,363 crore. The Reserve Bank of India flagged the issue in June and the same month, the Enforcement Directorate attached Sandesara’s properties.

In February, 2017—the same month when Alok Verma took over as CBI director, the central agency instituted a case against former CBI director AP Singh ( 2010-12) for corruption in collusion with ‘controversial meat exporter’ Moin Qureshi. The case had first been registered in 2014 but Singh’s name was included in 2017 on the basis of a statement given by Hyderabad-based businessman Pradeep Koneru.

Koneru told ED and CBI that he had met Qureshi at a social gathering in Delhi and that he had offered to help sort out a case involving Koneru’s father. He had shown him photographs with the then CBI director and asked for Rupees five crore, allegedly on behalf of Singh.

“(Qureshi) said to me whatever the money you will pay is not for me but for incurring lots of expenses of (then CBI chief) AP Singh, like shopping of various merchandise etc in India and abroad, hotel accommodations in India and abroad. Moreover, Moin’s daughter was organising CBI Annual Day functions and we have to incur lot of expenses. He further said that AP Singh used to stay quite often in the accommodation area of Mayfair, London and which caused huge expense to him,” said Koneru in his statement to ED, as per the complaint. According to the complaint, Koneru also told the ED that Qureshi “impressed him showing his photographs with AP Singh”.

Curiously, the present imbroglio in the CBI is also connected to Moin Qureshi. Hyderabad businessman Sathish Babu, who lodged the FIR against Rakesh Asthana, states that he was being repeatedly summoned to appear before the CBI in Delhi in the Moin Qureshi money laundering case. Every time he would be asked the same questions and asked to explain his relationship with Qureshi and why he had paid Rs 50 lakh to Qureshi. The CBI team did not believe his version that he had invested the money in one of Qureshi’s firms and he would again be summoned and grilled over the same ground.

The FIR says that fed up with the harassment, he had agreed to pay Rupees five crore to Manoj Prasad once he was assured that Asthana would ensure that he is no longer harassed.

While an inquiry alone will reveal all the dimensions of the Moin Qureshi case, it is curious that it has singed at least two CBI directors and now a special director, all accused of being part of an extortion racket in the country’s premier investigating agency.