It is speculated that Rakesh Asthana could return to the CBI as head of the agency.
New Delhi:
The CBI acquitted its former special director RakeINdish Asthana of allegations of taking bribes from the fraud-accused Sterling Biotech pharmaceutical company, the sources said.
This is the second clean note from the investigative agency to Rakesh Asthana, who had a controversial period at the CBI until he was dismissed in 2018. Currently the head of the Border Security Force (BSF), was acquitted by the CBI last March in another bribe. case, linked to meat exporter Moin Qureshi.
RK Shukla, who retired as director of CBI last week, “signed the file giving a clean note to Rakesh Asthana and others in mid-January,” the sources said.
“It was a unanimous opinion of the investigation team, supervisors and the competent authority to close the case due to lack of evidence,” they told NDTV.
The CBI had filed on August 30, 2017 a lawsuit against three officers, Sterling Biotech and unknown public servants for alleged corruption. The case was based on a journal seized from the premises of Sterling Biotech promoters, brothers Chetan and Nitin Sandesara, by the Income Tax department in 2011.
Based on the journal’s entries, then-CBI director Alok Verma had accused Rakesh Asthana of receiving around 4 million rupees in bribes from the Sandesara brothers.
The sources said: “The 12-digit numbers written against Asthana in the journal were examined, there was no such bank account anywhere. Every aspect was examined in detail in the three-year investigation, and for lack of evidence, the team of investigation was of the opinion that the case should be closed. “
In 2017, Alok Verma objected to the appointment of Rakesh Asthana as Special Director and, in a note sent to the Chief Vigilance Commissioner, claimed that the diary entries showed 23 entries in the officer’s name to the tune of Rs 3.94, 72,106 (about 4 crore). Despite the objection, Mr. Asthana was appointed.
The following year, however, reference was made to the same case when the Chief Vigilance Commission ordered the removal of Mr. Asthana from the CBI. “… pending the investigation process of all the matters that arise in view of the accusations and counter-complaints, order that Rakesh Asthana, CBI Special Director be stripped and will not exercise any function, power, duty or supervisory function with respect to cases that have already been registered or required to be registered … “, said the main anti-corruption watchdog.
Now that the CBI clears him of the position, it is speculated that Asthana could return as his boss.
Shukla’s term has ended and a high-level panel led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet soon to discuss the names of his successor.
A spokesperson for CBI declined to respond to the development.
“An impartial investigation has now shown that the then director of CBI falsely implicated Mr. Asthana in the case in collusion with some other officers. We have highlighted this from the beginning, both in court and at CVC. We are vindicated,”, said Rakesh Asthana’s attorney, Amit Anand Tiwari.
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