NEW DELHI: The CBI versus CBI battle is nearing its climax in the Supreme Court and trouble has mounted for director Alok Verma as the apex court has asked him to explain some of the allegations levelled against him by his deputy Rakesh Asthana.Special Director Asthana had written to the Cabinet secretary regarding what he perceived to be misconduct on the part of Verma. In his letter, the special director alleged that Verma had been close to Enforcement Directorate director Rajeshwar Prasad.
He alleged that Verma had shared the list of Undesirable Contact Men with Prasad after the former assumed office. According to Asthana, this was against protocol as sharing the list with othr investigative agencies was prohibited. Interestingly, the Supreme Court on Friday questioned the motive of the special director in writing to the Cabinet secretary, saying it was not protocol.
Before Alok Verma took charge of the CBI, as commissioner of Delhi Police he had forwarded the name of Rajender Upadhyay for induction as JD in the investigative agency to Asthana, who was then acting chief of the CBI. The letter was marked to the internal vigilance unit for verification, which, however, revealed ‘adverse conduct.’
Asthana alleged that Upadhyay, Verma and Prasad’s phones were put under surveillance by the agency and it was revealed that the three were using SIM cards from Nepal to avoid being detected. “The agency was forced to destroy the surveillance after six months as no evidence of criminal case was registered on the basis of it,” Asthana wrote in his letter to the Cabinet Secretary.
The Gujarat cadre officer, in his letter, also alleged that Verma was trying to pressure the internal vigilance unit joint director, Sai Manohar, to clear Upadhyay’s name. “At this point, Verma, who was the CBI chief, overruled the vigilance unit’s findings and forwarded Upadhyay’s name to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT). However, Upadhyay has still not been inducted into the CBI,” he said in his letter and added that Verma stripped Manohar of charge of the vigilance unit as he did not overturn his adverse recommendation.
Asthana also details how Upadhyay had adverse remarks made against the Chandigarh Police’s probes in certain cases by the Punjab and Haryana High Court at the time that he was Inspector General of Chandigarh.