Not many may be singing praises to the investigative acumen of the CBI these days but it appears one skill has survived the midnight purge.
The perceived ability of the agency to find an ingenious excuse to shunt out “difficult” officers was on display on Saturday when a deputy superintendent of police became the latest officer to move the Supreme Court.
DYSP Ashwini Kumar Gupta, who was among the 13 CBI officers shifted out hours after the director and his deputy were sent on leave in October, has said in his petition that he was transferred because he was probing corruption charges against special director Rakesh Asthana. The benched special director is considered close to the Prime Minister.
The stated reason for the transfer is a testimony to the sagacity of the adage “where there is a will, there is a way”.
Apparently, the CBI had unearthed information that the Intelligence Bureau, Gupta’s parent organisation from where he had been sent to the CBI in July 2014, had not sent an order extending his deputation.
Gupta, in his application filed through advocate Sunil Fernandes, has expressed surprise, saying the CBI had actually received the order in June.
Whether the order is received or not, that such an issue can be cited to get an officer out of the way speaks volumes about the unbreakable power of the red tape.
A.K. Bassi, another deputy superintendent who was leading the probe against Asthana and despatched to Port Blair, had also challenged his transfer. Both petitions may be taken up on November 20 with the main petition moved by CBI Alok Verma challenging his benching.
Gupta claims he was moved out because he was “one of the officials carrying out investigations along with Shri A.K. Bassi” that had unearthed “crucial findings implicating” Asthana in the Sterling Biotech case.
Gupta says the CBI had registered the case in Delhi on August 30 against the Sandesara Group company, three income-tax officials based in Guntur, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, and unknown public servants and others.
He adds that an income-tax raid on a Sterling Biotech property in Vadodara threw up a diary that contained records of certain transactions between January and June in 2011, “in which 23 suspected entries were found for a total amount of Rs 3,94,72,106 (Rs 3.94 crore) with respect to Shri Rakesh Asthana”.
Gupta says the inquiry also covered the lavish wedding of Asthana’s daughter in Vadodara during November-December 2016, with the focus on the expenditure.
He alleges the findings “led to the establishment of undeniable, cogent, clear and unmistakable link of Shri Rakesh Asthana and his family with fugitive accused Shri Nitin and Chetan Sandesara”.
“That infuriated Mr Rakesh Asthana so much that he made a mention of the same in his complaint to the cabinet secretary”, which he says led to the transfers.
Two other CBI officers have approached Delhi High Court against Asthana.
Last month, additional superintendent Surinder Singh Gurm requested the high court to dismiss Asthana’s petition for quashing the FIR against him, saying the special director was misleading the court by furnishing “selective” facts.
Joint director A.K. Sharma on Wednesday told the high court he had incriminating evidence against Asthana and was asked to furnish the information before the CBI.
