Verma vs Asthana: The CBI war all out in open

Trouble is mounting for CBI director Alok Verma or is it the end of the road for special director Rakesh Asthana’s stint in the agency? The massive feud between the number one and number two in the premier probe agency is demanding attention of the PMO. 

In an all time low for the CBI, the feud between its director Alok Verma and special director Rakesh Asthana has reached a flashpoint after the latter’s complaint filed before the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) came out in the public domain.

Asthana alleged that Verma had interfered in the raids against RJD chief Lalu Yadav last year in the IRCTC scam case. Apparently, the CBI raiding parties had to wait for an hour because of the alleged interference. Asthana was supervising the case. The CVC has started probing the matter against the head of the agency.

In an unprecedented move, the CBI on Friday issued a formal statement, levelling allegations against its own special director Rakesh Asthana, terming his complaint as an attempt “to intimidate the officers of CBI who are investigating his role in at least half a dozen cases.” The CBI, however, did not specify which these cases are.

The CBI’s statement that Asthana himself was being probed in “at least half a dozen cases” by the probe agency comes as a shocker since the senior officer continues to hold the number 2 position.

The strongly-worded statement, which appeared to have been issued by the CBI director through the official spokesperson, also did not carry any version of the special director.

The CBI said the CVC should opine on the maintainability of the complaint (of Asthana) and “consider it malicious and frivolous in order to protect the integrity of the organisation.”

“It is unfortunate that baseless and frivolous allegations are being made publicly without proper verification of facts to malign the image of the Director CBI and intimidate the officials of the organisation,” said the CBI statement.

“It is stated that the CVC has sought for certain case files from the CBI on the basis of a complaint filed by the Special Director, CBI. In its response to the CVC letter, the Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of CBI has pointed out that the complaint is an attempt by the complainant to intimidate the officers of CBI who are investigating his role in at least half a dozen cases,” it said.

The CBI has pointed out in its letter to the CVC that the issue relating to the IRCTC case was raked up earlier also and brought up before the Supreme Court on two occasions. The matter was dismissed by the Supreme Court, it said. “The petitioners were also in possession of information from highly confidential internal documents, which is a serious offence,” said the probe agency.

Irrespective of the maintainability of the complaint, the CBI said it has provided most of the files as requested by the CVC and the remaining will be submitted soon. There is no substance in the media reports that CBI is not cooperating in the enquiry, said the spokesperson.

The CBI further said that the allegation of preventing raids against the accused in the IRCTC case is absolutely false. The investigation of the case has resulted in filing a charge sheet before the designated court. This could not have been possible without the explicit approval of the CBI director, it clarified.

While the official statement seemed completely tilted in favour of the CBI director and carried no version of Asthana, it raised a question that whether the office of the spokesperson of CBI was being used by the agency's director in his personal capacity to clarify the matter. 

If the CBI was of the view that it’s own special director was trying to intimidate the probe agency’s own officers, it would constitute an offence. However, the agency has not clarified so far whether it plans to proceed against Asthana, which would be an unprecedented development in itself and is expected to draw immediate attention of the government.