In a huge development, another CBI officer has moved the Supreme Court challenging his transfer to Nagpur after the midnight constitutional coup led to the dismissal of CBI Director Alok Verma from his post.
Seeking urgent hearing of his case, Manish Kumar Sinha, DIG CBI, alleged in his petition that a senior minister was paid crores in the infamous Moin Qureshi case to intervene in the case, being investigated by the federal probe agency.
Sinha told the top court that he had documents that will ‘shock’ the court adding that his transfer to Nagpur was to change ‘the course of the investigation’ since the agency’s special director Rakesh Asthana was under scrutiny. This prompted the Chief Justice of India to say that nothing shocked him anymore. The CJI, however, refused to give an urgent hearing to his petition.
Another shocking revelation made in Sinha’s petition is the mention of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Sinha said that the middleman Manoj Prasad, who allegedly paid Rs 2 crore to Rakesh Asthana, bragged about his contact with Doval and taunted that ‘you people have no standing whatsoever and therefore should stay within limits.’ The petition read, “He (Manoj) claimed that recently his brother Somesh and Samant Goel, helped the NSA Shri Ajit Doval on an important personal matter.”
Manoj, according to the petition also claimed to have met Nitin Sandesara of Sterling Biotech in London. Nitin and his brother Chetan Sandesara are the main accused in the Sterling Biotech Case. Sinha said that the CBI had intercepted Manoj on 16 October last month. He was arrogant and ‘garrulous’ during the grilling. Manoj, according to the petition, said, “As per Manoj Prasad, Shri Dineshwar Prasad, father of Manoj and Somesh, retired as Join Secretary, R&AW and has close acquaintances with the present National Security Advisor Shri Ajit K Doval. This was one of the first things Manoj claimed after being brought to the CBI headquarters and expressed complete surprise and anger as to how the CBI could pick him up despite his close ties with the NSA Shri Ajit Doval.”
MK Sinha, DIG CBI drops a bombshell ?
As per Manoj Prasad, Dineshwar Prasad, father of Manoj and Somesh, retired as Joint Secretary, R&AW and has close acquaintance with the present National Security Advisor Shri Ajit K. Doval (“NSA”): MK Sinha in his plea in SC pic.twitter.com/WuqA3K36kc— Arvind Gunasekar (@arvindgunasekar) November 19, 2018
It added, “He started bragging and claimed that his brother Shri Somesh is very close to an officer at Dubai (name withheld) and to Samant Goel, presently Special Secretary, R&AW and he can get us ‘finished off’/’kicked out.’
The CBIvsCBI war has reached the Supreme Court, which last week directed the CVC to submit its report to Verma while asking the CBI director to file his response by Monday. Verma today asked for more time to submit his response.
The current revelations by a senior CBI officer, who was investigating the bribery allegations against the CBI’s own Special Director Rakesh Asthana, has come as a bombshell that has the potential to shake the government at the Centre.
Sinha too was transferred in the midnight coup on 24 October last month. He has called his transfer ‘arbitrary, motivated and malafide, and was made solely with the purpose and intent to victimise the officer as the investigation revealed cogent evidence against certain powerful persons.’