The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s factional feud took a drastic turn as CBI deputy inspector general M.K. Sinha filed an application in the Supreme Court and sought to implicate several top functionaries of the Narendra Modi government including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Central Vigilance Commissioner K.V. Chaudhary, for alleged interference in the functioning of the investigative agency.
Sinha, in his petition, said that he does not ”identify or seek to espouse the case of any of the senior officers of the CBI” but is “knocking the doors of justice to bring certain material facts to the kind notice of the court.” He then spilled the beans on the rot in the CBI in the form of an alleged politician-bureaucrat-CBI-middleman-businessman nexus. Sinha’s disclosures named a Union minister and some top government officials across key central organisations, claiming that the Rs 2 crore bribe money which is the bone of contention between Verma and Asthana, with each claiming that the other was paid bribe money, was actually paid to the Union minister.
According to Sinha’s petition, a number of bureaucrats were allegedly in touch with Satish Sana Babu, the complainant in the CBI’s case against special director Rakesh Asthana, not only promising him full protection but also trying to influence the case. Sana is a Hyderabad-based businessman who had complained against Asthana to the CBI and had also approached the Supreme Court seeking protection. Sana is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi.
In his petition which runs into several pages, Sinha said that the Moin Qureshi case can be taken as an example of the terrible state of affairs in the CBI. “The (Moin Qureshi) case was registered in early 2017 and is still under investigation even after more than a year and a half. Sana himself was called on multiple occasions by the CBI and the ED. The ED did not charge-sheet him but made him a witness. This indicates that he may not be a central player in the case. However, such open-ended investigations give ample scope to unscrupulous elements to indulge in illegal or undesirable activities .”
In his application, Sinha donned the hat of a whistleblower and narrated alleged instances of interference by Doval, minister of state for coal and mines Haribhai Chaudhary, and Union law secretary Suresh Chandra.
While mentioning the case, Sinha’s lawyer said there are “shocking details” in the plea. To this, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said, “nothing shocks us.”
Sinha was transferred to Nagpur in a midnight move on 23 October
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