Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the petition filed by lawyer Prashant Bhushan challenging the appointment of Rakesh Asthana as a special director of CBI.
Bhushan had argued and pointed out to the court that the appointment of Asthana was in violation of the principle of institutional integrity as laid down by the Supreme Court in the CVC case ( CPIL v Union of India) since his name appeared in the “Diary 2011” seized in the raid on Sterling Biotech Group owned by Sandesaras on which CBI itself has registered two FIRs.
Bhushan said that Asthana’s appointment would hamper the functioning and investigation being conducted by the CBI. It was also submitted to the court that the son of Rakesh Asthana worked with the same Sterling Biotech between 2010-2012 and the pre-wedding party of the daughter of Rakesh Asthana was held on 24 Nov 2016 (last year) at a farmhouse owned by the Sandesaras. Bhushan also highlighted that Asthana had not submitted his property returns for 2016 which is prerequisite for vigilance clearance required for any empanelment, promotion etc in the CBI as per DoPT notifications.
He said the diary showed the name of Asthana as having received an illegal gratification from a company and CBI has recently registered an FIR for money laundering against the accused firm and some public servants.
You can read the the entire list of allegations of impropriety by Bhushan against Asthana here.