Court Shows Displeasure on CBI’s Clean Chit to Ex-Spl Dir Asthana

The CBI gave a clean chit to Asthana in the charge sheet filed before special CBI Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal.

CBI’s former Special Director Rakesh Asthana.

(Photo: PTI)

A Delhi court expressed displeasure over CBI’s investigation in a bribery case against the former Special Director Rakesh Asthana and DSP Devender Kumar, while hearing the case against Dubai-based businessman and alleged middleman Manoj Prasad on Tuesday, 12 February.

The court has now scheduled the matter for hearing on 19 February.

The CBI has filed a charge sheet against Prasad in connection with a bribery case involving Asthana.

The CBI, however, gave a clean chit to Asthana in the charge sheet filed before special CBI Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal.

The agency has also absolved RAW chief S K Goel, who was also under the scanner in the case. CBI DSP Devender Kumar, who was arrested in 2018 and later got bail, has also got a clean chit by the probe agency.

The agency had filed an FIR against Asthana and Kumar under the Directorship of Alok Verma in an alleged bribery case on the complaint of Hyderabad-based businessman Satish Sana in October 2018.

It was for the first time ever that an FIR was registered against a serving CBI Special Director – that led to a major hue and cry in the power corridors.

Prasad was arrested on 17 October 2018 and got bail on 18 December the same year.

“The charge sheet was filed against Manoj Prasad under Section 7A (obtains or attempts to obtain undue advantage from someone performing public duty) and Section 8 (any person who promises to give advantage by inducing a public servant to perform improperly a public duty) of Prevention of Corruption Act and 420 (cheating) of IPC Act,” CBI sources told The Quint. 

The CBI is likely to file a supplementary charge sheet into the matter.

The CBI's failure to file a charge sheet within the mandatory 60 day period had in December 2018 led a Delhi court to grant statutory bail to Prasad.

The trial court had on 31 October last year granted bail to Kumar, arrested on October 23, after the agency chose not the oppose his application.

The CBI had registered the case against Asthana on the basis of a complaint from Hyderabad-based businessman Satish Sana, facing probe in the 2017 case allegedly involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi.

Sana alleged that the officer had helped him get a clean chit.

The agency had arrested Prasad in the case when he returned from Dubai. It was alleged by Sana that Prasad and his brother Somesh had taken Rs 2 crore to arrange a clean chit to him.

(With inputs from PTI)