The rift at the top in the Central Bureau of Investigation took a serious turn yesterday when a deputy superintendent of police was arrested for alleged falsification of records in the bribery allegations against special director Rakesh Asthana as Prime Minister Narendra Modi stepped in to resolve the fracas.
The PMO summoned CBI director Alok Verma and Asthana in an apparent bid to put a lid on the open war between the two officials who have levelled bribery allegations against each other.
There was no word on what the officials discussed with the higher-ups in the Prime Minister’s Office, but it is understood that the two officials have been told to make amends as the image of the organisation has taken a beating among the public, a point opposition parties made in their criticism.
During the day, the agency arrested its deputy superintendent Devendra Kumar, who was earlier the investigation officer in a case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi, on a charge of “falsification of records”.
Kumar’s arrest comes a day after the agency filed charges against Asthana and several others for allegedly accepting bribes to settle a case of meat exporter Moin Qureshi, who is facing multiple charges of money laundering and corruption.
The CBI has alleged that bribes were given at least five times between December, 2017 and October this year. “Kumar, who has been the investigation officer in the Qureshi case, has been arrested on the allegation of falsification of records,” the agency said in a statement.
It said Kumar fabricated a statement of Sathish Sana, a witness in the Quershi case, to show he recorded the statement on September 26, 2018, in Delhi.
“However, investigations revealed that Sana was not in Delhi on September 26. He was in Hyderabad on that day and joined the investigation only on October 1, 2018,” it added.
The CBI said “it was found that Kumar had fabricated the statement as an after-thought to corroborate the baseless allegations made by Asthana against CBI director to the CVC (Central Vigilance Commission).”
A CBI official said Sana’s statement was recorded on October 3.
He said the agency was also probing the role of other officers of the CBI special investigation team (SIT) then supervising the Qureshi case.
The official said the agency during searches at Kumar’s residence and his office at the agency’s headquarters in south Delhi’s Lodhi road seized eight mobile phones, one iPad and documents pertaining to Qureshi case.
The statement said the role of Kumar became suspect as the fabricated statement signed by him on September 26 quoted 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 concerned director.
The official further said that during investigations it was revealed that Sana was detained on September 25 at Hyderabad International Airport.
Asthana, a 1984 batch Indian Police Service officer of Gujarat cadre, is accused of accepting a Rs20mn bribe from a businessman who was under probe in the Qureshi case in order to “wreck” the investigation. The case was being examined by a special investigation team (SIT) headed by Asthana.
