Opposition Charged That CBI Drama To Prevent Agency To Investigate BJP Power Player Amit Shah!
NEW DELHI – Hours after the CBI chief and his second in command were sent on leave and a new officer put in charge, 13 CBI officials have been transferred. Those who have been shifted include another Gujarat cadre IPS officer, A K Sharma.
Among others who have been shifted include Dy SP, AK Bassi, Additional SP, S S Gurm, DIG Manish Kumar Sinha, DIG, ACB, Chandigarh, Tarun Gauba, DIGs Jasbir Singh, Sai Manohar, HoZ/JD Chandigarh zone, V Murugesan, HoZ/AC II and Amit Kumar,DIG/HoB.
Interestingly, Bassi was probing the charges against Special director Rakesh Asthana Asthana while Sai Manohar a trusted aide of Alok Verma has been shunted out to Port Blair.
Meanwhile, the CBi has clarified that none of its offices have been sealed. “Its clarified that no office in CBI HQ has been sealed,’ a CBI spokesman said. Earlier some reports had surfaced that offices of erstwhile Director Alok Verma and Special director, Rakesh Asthana inside the CBI HQ have been sealed.
In a first official reaction on the ongoing feud between two top functionaries of India’s premier investigative agency CBI, the government on Wednesday said it stepped in to ensure the institutional integrity of the organisation and save it from becoming an object of mockery.
Briefing the media here after the meeting of the Union Cabinet, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while defending the government decision to ask the two feuding officers – CBI Director Alok Verma and his deputy in the agency Rakesh Asthana — to proceed on leave, said it was done on the recommendations of the Chief Vigilance Commission (CVC), which has the power of superintendence under Section 4(2) of the Act in relation to the investigation.
“CBI is a premier investigation agency, which needs to maintain its institutional integrity and thus it is the pre-condition that fairness and honesty are maintained. We could not have afforded a situation where those who are accused and have gone outside India could raise fingers at the institutional integrity of the CBI,” Jaitley said.
Noting that both the CBI director and his deputy in the agency have levelled allegations against each other, the Minister said the government on the recommendation of the CVC has decided to constitute an SIT to investigate into the matter. “When, how and who will form the SIT will be decided by the CVC and since neither of them can investigate charges against each other, both of them have been asked to sit out as an interim measure. They have also been asked to offer themselves in the investigation,” Jaitley said, adding that it was “an extraordinary situation and the SIT will not function under either of the two”.
Rebutting the opposition charges of government indulging in the investigative affairs of the agency, which was supposed to investigate allegations in relation to BJP president Amit Shah, Jaitley said, “It is utter rubbish and the allegations cast serious doubts that did opposition has access to what was going on in the minds of officers in the CBI?”
Insisting that the government will not pre-judge anything in the ongoing affairs, the Finance Minister said, “We are committed to ensure institutional integrity so that agency does not become an object of mockery.”
