CBI names its own spl director Asthana as accused in bribery case

In an interesting development, India’s premier investigating agency The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has named its Special Director Rakesh Asthana as an accused for allegedly demanding and taking bribe from a businessman who was being investigated in the Moin Qureshi corruption case by a special investigation team led by Rakesh Asthana.

The FIR filed by the CBI on Tuesday has also named Samant Kumar Goel, Special Director of India’s external intelligence agency (R&AW), but not as an accused, whereas Asthana has been named as Accused number one in the case.

Moin Qureshi was raided by the Income Tax department in 2014 and his messages with former CBI director AP Singh had led to Singh's resignation as member of the Union Public Services Commission. In 2017, the CBI had registered a case and this was one of the many major cases being handled by Asthana.

On October 4, Sana Satish had named Asthana before the Magistrate. He claimed that he was being harassed by CBI officers to pay more bribe. He also revealed how ₹3 crore had been paid over a period of 10 months from December 2017.

On September 21, reacting to the complaint by its Special Director Rakesh Asthana to the CVC against its chief Alok Verma, the CBI had informed the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) about investigating Asthana in six cases of corruption. The CBI had also described the complaint by its Special Director Rakesh Asthana to the CVC against its chief Alok Verma as "malicious" and "frivolous" and said that the complaint is aimed to malign his image and intimidate the officials.

The CBI remarks came after media reports claimed that Asthana had filed a complaint before the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) alleging interference in the probes undertaken by the Special Investigation Team under him.

This episode had brought the cracks within CBI, particularly between the CBI chief and the number 2 official in hierarchy, the special director out in the open. It is important to note here that the CBI Chief Alok Verma will soon be retiring from his post.