A CBI deputy superintendent has in a letter to the Prime Minister accused his superior officer of involvement in the killings of “14 innocent persons” in a fake encounter in Jharkhand, months after the agency witnessed an ugly public spat between then director Alok Verma and his deputy Rakesh Asthana.

The DySP, N.P. Mishra, who is posted with the CBI’s Interpol division that handles the extradition of fugitives, has sought the sacking of A.K. Bhatnagar, a joint director, to “uphold the impartiality of the agency”.

A copy of the letter, dated September 25, is in the possession of The Telegraph.

The CBI is under the administrative control of the department of personnel and training (DoPT), which reports to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Mishra, who has challenged his transfer order in Delhi High Court that is scheduled to hear the plea on October 1, has also forwarded a copy of his complaint to the CBI director as well as the chief vigilance commissioner.

“It is submitted that A.K. Bhatnagar, who is presently working as JD (administration), CBI, is grossly involved in the fake encounter of 14 innocent persons in Jharkhand. It is also learnt that the related case is under investigation in CBI SC-I Branch,” the complaint said.

Bhatnagar, a 1989-batch Jharkhand-cadre IPS officer, was appointed joint director in January 2018. He could not be contacted for his comment on Mishra’s allegations.

In October 2018, Jharkhand High Court had ordered a CBI inquiry into the alleged fake encounter in 2015 at Palamu in which security forces had allegedly killed 12 people after branding them as Maoists. The role of at least three IPS officers, besides their subordinates, had come under the scanner. Bhatnagar was then posted as inspector-general, Jharkhand police.

Initially the case was probed by the state CID, which gave a clean chit to the accused police officers. The police had claimed that 12 Maoists — although Mishra has claimed 14 — were killed in a gun battle at Bakoria in Palamu district on June 8, 2015. Among those killed were a temporary teacher and a 10-year-old boy. The family members of the victims had termed the encounter as fake and alleged that innocent people had been branded as Maoists.

Senior officials in the CBI refused comment on the allegations levelled by Mishra against Bhatnagar.

“The investigation in the alleged fake encounter case is underway. Till now no evidence has surfaced on record during the investigation conducted against A.K. Bhatnagar, then IG of Jharkhand police,” a source in the CBI said. He said this was probably the first time an official of DySP rank had directly written to the Prime Minister against a superior.

Last year, the bitter feud between Verma and Asthana had exposed the agency to ridicule and left the Modi government red-faced. Both were benched by the Centre in a controversial midnight raid in October.

CBI spokesperson Nitin Wakankar on Friday said Mishra had in the past submitted similar complaints against other officers in the agency. “He himself is an accused in a custodial death case,” Wakankar said.

The CBI, he said, was reviewing the postings of various officers. “The letter is an attempt to disrupt the movement of people stationed at one place for long. Also, civil servants cannot directly write to the PMO. It’s only through the department head that one can write,” the spokesperson said.

He, however, refused to comment on the allegations levelled by Mishra against Bhatnagar.

In the letter, Mishra has highlighted a purported conflict of interest and said that “services of A.K. Bhatnagar in CBI must be terminated at once” to uphold the impartiality of the agency, or else there was every likelihood of the lack of such action “casting aspersions on the working of CBI in as much as influencing the process of investigation by Bhatnagar by virtue of his high placement in the organisation”.

“It is also submitted that family members of the victims have already made some complaint in this regard,” the letter said.

“Besides, the above heinous criminal act, involvement of Bhatnagar in various corrupt practices in the organisation has been brought to the notice of your good self on various occasions by various representations/complaint,” it added.

Mishra had last year accused CBI officers of corruption and manipulation of evidence in the murder of journalist Umesh Rajput in Chhattisgarh, but the agency had denied the allegations.

Rajput, a journalist with a local newspaper in Chhattisgarh, was shot dead in January 2011 allegedly because he had filed several reports on a powerful lobby of health professionals who, with the support of local politicians, had indulged in corruption.

Story updated on October 2:

CBI clarifies

The CBI said on Tuesday that its spokesperson had not been quoted correctly in the report headlined “CBI officer in ‘fake encounter’ slur on senior”, published in The Telegraph on September 28.

CBI spokesperson Nitin Wakankar said in a letter to the newspaper: “I wish to state that the Spokesperson has not been quoted correctly in the said news item. The CBI Spokesperson has given the quote on 27.09.2019 “RC 04(S)/2018(Bakoria/Bhaluvahi Encounter Case, Jharkhand) was registered in compliance to the orders dated 22.10.2018 of Hon’ble High Court of Jharkhand at Ranchi passed by in W.P.(Cr.) No.312 of 2016 relating to alleged attack and firing by Maoist Extremist Organisation on Police personnel with intention to kill them registered at Police Station Daltonganj, Palamu (Jharkhand) was taken up by CBI. The matter is under investigation. Till now, no evidence has surfaced on record during the investigation conducted so far against Sh A.K. Bhatnagar, then IG, Jharkhand Police, Jharkhand.

“…The spokesperson has been attributed in the other paras in the said news item.”