The internecine battle within the CBI reached the doorsteps of the Prime Minister’s Office when agency DIG Manish Kumar Sinha, moving a petition in the Supreme Court, alleged that National Security Adviser Ajit Doval interfered in investigations against Special Director Rakesh Asthana and stymied a search of his residence. Mentioning his plea before the bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph, Sinha sought urgent hearing of his petition but it was declined. The bench is scheduled to take up CBI Director Alok Verma’s plea. In response to the Chief Vigilance Commissioner’s report on charges against him, Verma filed his reply on Monday. Verma and Asthana, who had been at loggerheads, were divested of their responsibilities and sent on leave October 23. Both officers have approached the Supreme Court.
Claiming that his subsequent transfer to Nagpur was the fallout of the investigation against Asthana which he was overseeing, Sinha sought that the transfer order be quashed. His petition levelled serious charges against the PMO, Minister of State for Coal and Mines Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary and Law Secretary Suresh Chandra. In his petition, Sinha claimed that two alleged middlemen involved in the case were close to Doval. He also claimed that Sathish Babu Sana, the complainant in the case, had told him that MoS Chaudhary had been paid “a few crores of rupees” after he had “intervened with the senior officers of CBI through the office of the Minister of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension”.
The petition stated that surveillance had stumbled upon a conversation involving R&AW officer Samant Goel in which he was heard saying that the PMO had managed the CBI issue. That same night, the petition alleged, the entire CBI team involved in the probe against Asthana was removed. Sinha’s petition claimed that Sana had met CVC K V Chowdhary over the case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi, and that Law Secretary Suresh Chandra had contacted Sana on November 11 – while the Supreme Court-monitored CVC probe into the CBI battle was on – and tried to influence him.
While Doval was not available for comment on Sinha’s allegations, Haribhai Chaudhary refuted the allegations, saying “certain absolutely false and baseless allegations have been made against me. I neither know, nor have I met Sathish Babu Sana, who is alleged to have paid me a bribe. I only came to know from various media reports today that an affidavit has been filed in the Hon’ble Supreme Court mentioning this matter. I condemn this malicious attempt to malign my reputation. I welcome any inquiry into this matter and the law should take its own course. If I am proven guilty, I am willing to leave politics.”
Suresh Chandra, on his part, said, “The allegations against me contained in the affidavit and the petition filed before the Supreme Court are false. As a serving government servant, I have reported the matter to the Union Law Ministry and the Attorney General of India for taking appropriate action.” CVC Chowdhary told reporters: “The matter is before the Supreme Court. It will not be appropriate for me to comment.”
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