CBI names its No.2 Rakesh Asthana in bribery case

[Kool_SRG]

Rakesh Asthana is accused of accepting a bribe of ₹ 2 crore in a case that also involves businessman Moin Qureshi

The Central Bureau of Investigation has named its second-in-command Rakesh Asthana as an accused in a bribery case along with another agency official and two private persons.

Those named as accused in the FIR (13A/2018) are Mr. Asthana, CBI Deputy Superintendent of Police Devender Kumar, Dubai-based investment banker Manoj Prasad and his brother Somesh Prashad. More than ₹3 crore in bribes were paid by the complainant for getting relief in a case against meat exporter Moin Qureshi and others, the agency said.

Searches conducted

The CBI arrested Manoj in the evening of October 16. Searches were also conducted on the Investigating Officer’s premises on Saturday. Earlier, despite repeated questions from the media, the agency had not confirmed the developments.

The case has been registered on the complaint from Satish Sana Babu, a businessman from Hyderabad, who had first been summoned by Devender Kumar, Moin Qureshi case Investigating Officer, in October 2017. The CBI has got his statements recorded before a magistrate under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code twice, on October 4 and 20.

The agency alleges that bribes were taken in five instalments in December 2017 and October 2018 to give a clean chit to the Hyderabad businessman.

As alleged, ₹1 crore was paid on December 10 and ₹1.95 crore on December 13 last; ₹25 lakh on October 10; and 55, 000 dirhams on October 14. The agency has claimed that the complainant’s statement before the magistrate “corroborates” the allegations to the minutest details. “Then, there are WhatsApp conversations and mobile phone location records that confirm the movement of the accused persons. Accused Somesh handled Mr. Asthana’s investments in Dubai and London,” a CBI official said on Sunday.

The CBI said the amended provision of the Prevention of Corruption Act, which mandates prior approval for initiating a probe against senior government functionaries, would not apply in the case of Mr. Asthana.

According to the FIR, the businessman was summoned in the Moin Qureshi case several times for questioning on a ₹50 lakh transaction in 2011. During a trip to Dubai, he met Manoj who allegedly got him in touch with his brother for getting relief from CBI summonses.

The FIR alleges that Somesh, after talking to a CBI official on the phone, demanded ₹3 crore as the initial amount and ₹2 crore after the filing of the charge sheet in the case. Subsequently, the businessman allegedly paid about ₹3 crore through middlemen.

However, on September 25 this year — when he along with his family was to board a flight from Hyderabad to Paris — he was stopped at the airport as a look-out circular had been issued against him. On an inquiry with the case investigating officer, he was told to pay up the rest of the amount, as alleged.

Turf war

The latest move by the CBI is yet another indication of the escalating turf war between the top brass in the top agency: CBI Director Alok Verma and Mr. Asthana.

Even as the news of the new complaint emerged, the CBI sent a team of officials to interrogate some businessmen in Vadodara with regard to expenses made by Mr. Asthana in lavish wedding of his daughter. CBI officials have interrogated around a dozen persons about the wedding reception held in sprawling Laxmi Vilas Palace owned by the Baroda’s erstwhile royal family Gaekwads. “Two officers came and asked me about bookings in our hotel and catering for the reception,” Piyush Shah, a prominent hotelier in Vadodara, told The Hindu.

Before the present complaint was filed, Mr. Asthana filed a complaint against the CBI Director before the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), accusing him of interfering in a corruption case involving family members of RJD leader Lalu Prasad. Subsequently, in a statement, the agency denied Mr. Asthana’s charges against the Director and said the Special Director himself was under probe in half-a-dozen cases and was trying to intimidate officials probing his role. The CBI Director is learnt to have written to the CVC on October 18 and 19 about the FIR registered against Mr. Asthana.

In August this year, Mr. Asthana wrote to the Cabinet Secretary “bringing to his notice certain corrupt practices within the CBI.”

This is not for the first time Mr. Asthana is facing bribery allegations. Earlier, his name had surfaced in the Sandesara brothers’ case. The Vadodara-based businessmen Sandesara brothers are now abroad, evading probe and arrests by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate for allegedly defrauding banks of ₹5,200 crore. The CBI is investigating its two former chiefs A.P. Singh and Ranjit Sinha in other cases.

[Kool_SRG]

[Mitron]

Is he #2 in cbi??

[Kool_SRG]

FIR Against Rakesh Asthana, Top Modi Appointee in CBI, a Setback to Govt Image

Asthana, the second ranking official in the CBI, is accused of taking bribes to settle a money laundering case against exporter Moin Qureshi.

New Delhi: In an unprecedented development, the consequences of which may singe the Modi government, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked its own special director and number-two in the organisation, Rakesh Asthana, in a bribery case. Asthana, who is named as the prime accused in an FIR that was filed on October 15, is alleged to have received kickbacks, amounting to Rs 2 crore, from a businessman, Moin Qureshi, to settle a money laundering case against him.

The FIR also mentions Samant Kumar Goel, a special director at India’s premier external intelligence body, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), as aiding the illegal deal between Asthana and Qureshi. However, the CBI has not named the 1984 batch IPS officer from the Punjab cadre as an accused in the case as yet. His role is currently being probed.

Asthana, it is alleged, received bribes through a middleman named Manoj Prasad, who was arrested by the CBI’s anti-corruption unit on October 16, a day after the FIR was filed. CBI officials told The Indian Express that the Dubai-based Prasad admitted, in a statement to the magisterial court, to have paid bribes to Asthana on behalf of Qureshi. He has also reportedly named Goel as the one facilitating the process.

The CBI is said to have submitted “telephone intercepts, WhatsApp messages, money trail and a statement” – all allegedly pointing towards Asthana’s culpability – to the magistrate.

How the case unfolded

The bribery case goes back to February 2014 when the Income Tax department raided the office of Qureshi, a meat exporter. His BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) messages showed that he was directly in touch with former CBI director A.P Singh. Consequently, Singh was forced to resign from his post-retirement sinecure as a member of the Union Public Service Commission. In February, 2017, the CBI registered the case and handed it over to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by Asthana. Subsequently, in August 2017, Moin Qureshi, a meat exporter, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate under various provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. He was accused of laundering money for a number of public servants.

 

Asthana’s own role came into question when a Hyderabad-based businessman Sana Satish, who was being probed in the Qureshi corruption case by the CBI SIT headed by Asthana himself, gave a statement before a magistrate on October 4 that the CBI special director was trying to suppress the case against Qureshi in exchange for money.

The Indian Express reported that Satish named Asthana, Manoj Prasad and his relative, Somesh Srivastava in his statement and “gave details of how he had paid Rs 3 crore over a period of 10 months from December 2017 to stay away from the CBI case”. Satish, according to the newspaper report, also claimed that “he was harassed by CBI officers to pay more”.

“On the instructions of Manoj Prasad, Rs 25 lakh were allegedly paid on October 9 to a conduit to get relief from appearing before the SIT for questioning. After he got relief, Prasad travelled from Dubai to Delhi in the morning to collect Rs 1.75 crore on October 16, where he was apprehended by the CBI team,” the newspaper report noted.

Following his arrest, Prasad, in his statement, has reportedly said that he was paying bribes to Asthana on behalf of Qureshi. He also is said to have alleged that Goel, currently RAW’s number two and in-charge of the spy agency’s West Asia’s desk, met Qureshi quite often in Dubai and helped him get in touch with Asthana.

Infighting within the CBI

The allegations against Asthana come on the heels of massive infighting within the CBI, between the agency’s director, Alok Verma, and his number two.

Asthana has accused the CBI director of interfering in a corruption case against the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav which he is investigating.

 

On the other hand, Verma alleges that Asthana’s charges are “frivolous” and that he is using those as cover to divert attention from the serious accusations against him. Asthana is currently being probed in six cases including accepting bribes from the controversial Sterling Bitoech group and jailed journalist-cum-fixer Upendra Rai. The CBI, in this context, has said that Asthana was deliberately maliging Verma’s image. In July this year, the CBI had written to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) that Asthana could not have a role in inducting officers in the absence of Verma as he was under the scanner in several corruption cases. It was alleged that Asthana used his power as the number two in the organisation to bypass Verma’s authority to induct officers of questionable integrity.

 

Asthana, a 1984-batch Gujarat cadre IPS officer, is not new to controversy. His appointment as the special director of CBI was challenged in the court by the public service NGO Common Cause. The Wire had reported earlier that Common Cause objected to his appointment as the special director as his name figured in a 2011 diary seized from Sterling Biotech – a company being probed by the CBI for money laundering – as the alleged recipient of payments worth Rs 3.8 crore. The diary subsequently became the basis for the CBI to file an FIR against the firm’s investors and other public servants. Asthana was not named in that FIR but the agency is investigating his role in the matter.

Asthana’s appointment on October 22, 2017 had happened in controversial circumstances. The selection committee comprising the central vigilance commissioner (CVC) K.V. Chowdary – whose own role was questioned in the investigations related to Sahara-Birla diaries – two vigilance commissioners and the secretaries to the home ministry and the department of personnel and training (DoPT) appointed him unanimously. However, it was then reported that Verma had objected to Asthana’s elevation in the organisation. While the CBI director is not a member of the selection committee, the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, under which the CBI operates, says that the director has to be compulsorily consulted before appointing any person above the rank of superintendent of police.

However, the Supreme Court had then thought that it should not interfere in the government functioning, giving Asthana the benefit of doubt.

Before Verma was appointed as the full-time director of CBI, Asthana fulfilled the role as the interim director. The move to appoint him as the interim director raised many eyebrows for the way it happened and also because this was the first time in a decade that the CBI was without a full-time director.

 

Writing for The Wire, journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta noted that Asthana, who was posted as an additional director of the CBI in April 2016, was made the interim director of the CBI for a brief period between December 3, 2016 and January 18, 2017 after Anil Sinha demitted office. He noted that merely two days before Sinha’s retirement, the second-in-command at the CBI, who should have taken over as the interim director, R.K. Dutta, was transferred to the ministry of home affairs as special secretary (internal security). Thakurta said that the transfer of Dutta was extraordinary as the post he was given “was specially upgraded from the level of joint secretary to special secretary”.

Many reports have pointed out that Asthana has always landed plush positions because of his proximity with the top brass in the Modi government.

The Wire had recently reported how Asthana was allegedly influencing a coal scam case at the CBI in which the name of Bhaskar Khulbe – a West Bengal cadre IAS officer who is now one of the most trusted aides of the prime minister Narendra Modi in the PMO – had come up. Asthana is said to have taken a stance that Khulbe should be made a witness rather than an accused in the case.

“As secretary in the PMO, he (Khulbe) is one of Narendra Modi’s most trusted aides. He handles all transfers and postings of Central officials, working closely with P.K. Mishra, additional principal secretary to the prime minister,” The Wire report said.

The report mentions that Asthana’s soft stance against Khulbe in the case was “hardly a surprise, given his proximity to (P.K) Mishra in the PMO”. The report added that Mishra, also a Gujarat cadre officer, had backed Asthana’s appointment as the special director in the CBI and had ensured that the selection committee, headed by the CVC K.V Chowdary, appoints him unanimously despite the CBI director’s objections.

[Kool_SRG]

19 hours ago, Mitron said:

Is he #2 in cbi??

YEs..

[Kool_SRG]

PM Modi Intervenes In Big CBI War, Summons Top Two Officers: 10 Points

The CBI has filed a bribery case against its No. 2 officer Rakesh Asthana, who had written to the government listing several charges against his boss Alok Verma.

 

Here are the 10 latest developments in this story:

• Today, the CBI arrested its officer Devender Kumar, who worked with Rakesh Asthana, and accused him of making false statements against its chief. In an unprecedented fallout of the fight, the CBI searched its own offices - specifically the rooms of senior officers who have worked with Rakesh Asthana.

 

•  The CBI's First Information Report (FIR) against Rakesh Asthana is based on the claims of Sathish Sana, a Hyderabad-based businessman investigated in a money-laundering case against meat exporter Moin Qureshi.

 

• Sathish Sana has alleged that he was asked to pay a bribe of Rs. 5 crore to Mr Asthana to be spared. The CBI says Sathish Sana told a magistrate that he had paid Rs. 2 crore as bribe to Mr Asthana over a 10 month period from December last year.

 

• Manoj Prasad, a Dubai-based investment banker, was allegedly the middleman who organized the bribe. He was arrested on October 16 when he was allegedly about to collect an installment. The CBI claims nine phone calls made by Manoj Prasad's brother Somesh immediately after the arrest included conversations with Mr Asthana.

 

• Somesh Prasad has also been charged by the CBI. Manoj and Somesh are the sons of a former officer of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). The CBI says the role of R&AW officials is also being investigated.

 

• In a complaint to the government in August, Rakesh Asthana had alleged it was the CBI chief who took that bribe but had framed him, because he prevented Sathish Sana from skipping the country.

 

• Sathish Sana had, during his interrogation, "admitted" to bribing the CBI director, Mr Asthana said in his letter to the Cabinet Secretariat. The letter also listed 10 instances of corruption, criminal misconduct, interference in the investigation of the sensitive cases. The claim has been termed fraudulent by the CBI and for this it has arrested Devender Kumar.

 

• Earlier this month, Mr Asthana also accused the CBI chief of trying to frame him in the case of Gujarat-based company Sterling Biotech, which is being investigated for huge loan default.

 

• The CBI infighting started last year when the director objected to the appointment of Mr Asthana as his number 2, citing the Sterling Biotech case.  Mr Asthana, who had been acting chief, was elevated nevertheless, after another officer was reportedly transferred overnight to the home ministry to make way for him.

 

 

• Rahul Gandhi tweeted this morning: "The PM's blue-eyed boy, Gujarat cadre officer, of Godra SIT fame, infiltrated as No. 2 into the CBI, has now been caught taking bribes. Under this PM, the CBI is a weapon of political vendetta. An institution in terminal decline that's at war with itself."

[boeing747]

Why Modi is involving in these matters? Enti katha?

[Kool_SRG]

5 minutes ago, boeing747 said:

Why Modi is involving in these matters? Enti katha?

Ee Asthana ane officer was Gujarat based IPS cadre... Godra case lo handled and was appointed by modi ani talk in CBI.

[boeing747]

Just now, Kool_SRG said:

Ee Asthana ane officer was Gujarat based IPS cadre... Godra case lo handled and was appointed by modi ani talk in CBI.

Dexxmma ee gujju gallu antha lafoot nayallu la unnar ga.

[batman2]

cbi reports to PMO so modi summoned both

if asthana has committed this corruption, modi should take strict action against him. if its a case of ego between cbi director and him then the cbi director should be kicked out

[Kool_SRG]

14 minutes ago, batman2 said:

cbi reports to PMO so modi summoned both

if asthana has committed this corruption, modi should take strict action against him. if its a case of ego between cbi director and him then the cbi director should be kicked out

Evadinaina chudakudadu tanni tarimeyyali edavalni...

[Mitron]

5 minutes ago, Kool_SRG said:

Evadinaina chudakudadu tanni tarimeyyali edavalni...

Wah modiji wah

[MiryalgudaMaruthiRao]

2 Cr nenu istha jail nundi bayatiki mingeyandi nanni 

[Kool_SRG]

Preserve phone, Delhi High Court tells CBI No. 2 Rakesh Asthana; says no arrest for now

CBI special director Asthana had approached the Delhi High Court to seek protection against arrest. Asthana’s petition comes hours after CBI officer Devender Kumar, who was arrested yesterday, asked the high court to cancel the bribery case filed against them.

Rakesh Asthana, the CBI special director named in a corruption case, cannot be arrested till Monday when his petition against the case will be heard again, the Delhi High Court said on Tuesday, ordering the CBI to maintain status quo. But Asthana has been ordered by the court to “preserve” all his electronic devices at the CBI’s request which had expressed concern that an attempt might be made to erase evidence on devices such as computer and mobile phone.

Asthana had approached the Delhi High Court to seek protection against arrest. Asthana’s petition came hours after CBI officer Devender Kumar, who was arrested yesterday, asked the high court to cancel the bribery case filed against them.

In his petition, Deputy Superintendent of Police Devender Kumar said he was being made “a scapegoat” and the case filed against them was false, frivolous and an afterthought.

Kumar insisted that he was an “upright police officer” with an excellent service record. The officer said he had been investigating the case against meat exporter Moin Akhtar Qureshi and others and was implicated because he had unearthed the truth in this case and was going to arrest “several accused person”.

The matter was mentioned before a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice VK Rao by senior advocate Dayan Krishnan. The court listed the plea for hearing before an appropriate bench in the post lunch session on Tuesday.

Kumar, who was earlier the investigating officer in a case involving Moin Qureshi, was arrested on Monday by the CBI on the allegations of forgery in recording the statement of businessman Sathish Sana, who had alleged to have paid bribes to get relief in the case. As a local court Tuesday sent him to seven days CBI custody, the agency announced he had been suspended from service.

 

The case against Asthana has been registered on a complaint by a Hyderabad-based businessman, Sana Satish Babu, who alleged that two Dubai-based brothers – Manoj Prasad and Somesh Prasad – claimed that they were acting on behalf of the CBI special director and allegedly struck a deal for Rs 5 crore to protect him in a case that the agency registered against controversial meat exporter Moin Qureshi. Former CBI director AP Singh is also an accused in the case.

[Kool_SRG]

CBI infighting gets murkier

The Central Bureau of Investigation raided its own headquarters in Delhi and arrested DSP Devinder Kumar on Monday. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• The CBI arrested DSP Devinder Kumar on Monday
• The arrest was in connection with a bribery case
• CBI conducted searches at Kumar's residence

 

It's CBI vs CBI, and it's a full-blown war. The premier investigating agency raided its own headquarters in Delhi and arrested DSP Devinder Kumar on Monday.

The arrest was in connection with a bribery case against CBI's second-most senior officer, Rakesh Asthana, who has levelled corruption charges against agency director Alok Verma.

 

CBI also conducted searches at Kumar's residence. It seized eight mobile phones, one laptop and documents from both premises.

DSP Kumar, who was the investigating officer (IO) in the bribery case, has been arrested for fabricating the statement of complainant Satish Sana.

"Devinder Kumar, IO in the case, created the statement of Satish Sana under CrPC (Criminal Procedure Code) 161. During the investigation, the CBI found that Devinder was not present in Delhi on 26.09.2018 as claimed in the statement. He joined the investigation on 1.10.2018 and recorded the statement on 3.10.2018," CBI said.

"It was found during the investigation that Devinder fabricated the statement as an afterthought to corroborate allegations made by Special Director Rakesh Asthana against Director Alok Verma before the CVC," added the CBI.

After Asthana alleged in his letter to the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) that he was being framed in the bribery case because CBI director Verma had accepted a bribe of Rs 2 crore, and was accusing him to shield himself, the investigating agency came out in defence of its chief.

The CBI, in a statement to India Today TV, said that the allegations made by Asthana against its director, Verma, are "false and malicious".

Letter to CVC

After being named an accused in the bribery case, Asthana wrote to the CVC on October 19, in a letter marked "top secret" which is in possession of India Today TV, alleging that the bribe was paid to CBI director Alok Verma to settle a case against Satish Sana.

The allegation is that Sana, who filed a complaint with the agency, was asked to pay a bribe by Manoj Prasad and his brother, Somesh Prasad, to settle the case against him with the help of CBI Special Director Asthana.

According to the letter from Asthana to the CVC, Sana allegedly paid the bribe to Verma for scuttling the probe in the Moin Qureshi case.

The letter also said that during the interrogation, Sana, gave a statement in January, in which he allegedly said that he met a Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MP CM Ramesh, who in turn met the CBI Director for settlement of his case.

"On receipt of information that Satish paid illegal gratification to Alok Verma, the CBI Director, the same was brought to the notice of Cabinet Secretary on 24.08.2018 by Rakesh Asthana," reads the letter. The CVC initiated an inquiry and sought the relevant files.

Move for arrest

On September 20, the arrest proposal for the custodial interrogation of Satish Sana was moved for the approval of the CBI director by Asthana. But the file was moved to Director of Prosecution after four days.

The CBI claims that the "contention that Director, CBI, made an attempt to stop the arrest of Sana is false and malicious".

"The allegation has been made to deflect the charge of receipt of bribe money by CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana and the other public servant named in the FIR. The case against the public servants relates to transactions beginning in December 2017, in a case registered in February 2017, whereas the arrest proposal was moved only on 12.9.2018."

Asthana, in his letter, also claimed that on September 25, Sana tried to flee to Dubai from Hyderabad airport. He was prevented by the immigration because of the "lookout circular" issued against him on the instructions of Asthana, he claimed.

The CBI said that "allegations that the Director CBI was not aware of LOC issued against Satish Sana is incorrect. Director CBI had seen and ratified the proposal to issue the LOC on 21.05.2018."

The allegations and counter-allegations have backed the image of India's premier investigative agency with both officers accusing each other of having received bribes to settle a case against accused persons.

"It is clear that active efforts are underway to falsely implicate me (Rakesh Asthana). In the light of above, the commission may kindly expeditiously transfer the investigation and supervision of 8 cases to the SIT as requested by undersigned (Rakesh Asthana) in the earlier letters in the interest of justice and in the spirit of principles of nature of justice," reads the letter by Asthana to the CVC.

The CBI told India Today TV that "based on the allegations made in the complaint against public servants of the agency -- namely Rakesh Asthana and Devender Kumar -- that they received illegal gratification through private persons, Manoj and Somesh Prasad, for giving relief in the case, an FIR has been filed against them".

Sana is one of the witnesses in a case pertaining to Moin Qureshi.

"Sana was called to the CBI for examination/inquiry on multiple occasions in October/November 2017. During October/November 2017, there were four instances in which notices were given to Sana. In order to get relief from frequent notices, Sana approached one Manoj Prasad in Dubai in the month of December 2017. Rs 2.95 crore was paid to the public servants (Rakesh Asthana) through Manoj Prasad and Somesh Prasad, and Sana was able to obtain relief in the ongoing investigation in the Moin Qureshi case. Subsequently, there were no notices issued to him till mid of February 2018," said the CBI.

Notice to Sana

According to the agency, on February 19 a notice was issued to Sana again. Sana flew to Dubai and met Manoj Prasad.

Subsequently, there no notices were issued till May-end/June beginning. On May 16, the lookout circular was issued against Satish Sana.

"On 24/09/2018, while Sana was going abroad, he was stopped by immigration office at Hyderabad. Subsequently, he was called by Investigation Officer on 1/10/2018 and again on 03/10/2018. Faced with continued harassment, Sana got his statement recorded with the Magistrate Court regarding the entire transaction," said the CBI.

The CBI further told India Today TV that later Sana also contacted Manoj Prasad to get relief from the appearance due on October 9.