'Complaint against CBI director malicious and frivolous'

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday termed its Special Director Rakesh Asthana's complaint to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) against CBI Director Alok Verma as "malicious and frivolous." It stated that he has done it to "intimidate the officials of the organisation."

The statement from the central probe agency comes after there were reports about Ashtana filing a complaint before the CVC against Verma.

"Certain allegations have been made in a newspaper published from New Delhi referring to a complaint filed before the Central Vigilance Commission against the Director CBI. The newspaper story has subsequently been carried in several electronic channels. It is unfortunate that baseless and frivolous allegations are being made publically without proper verification of facts to malign the image of the Director CBI and intimidate the officials of the organisation," the statement from CBI read.

"It is stated that the CVC has sought for certain case files from the CBI on the basis of a complaint filed by the Special Director, CBI. In its response to the CVC letter, the Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of CBI has pointed out that the complaint is an attempt by the complainant to intimidate the officers of CBI who are investigating his role in at least half a dozen cases. The CBI said that the CVC should opine on the maintainability of the complaint and consider it malicious and frivolous in order to protect the integrity of the organisation," the statement added.

The CBI further stated that it has "pointed out in its letter to CVC that the issue relating to the IRCTC case was raked up earlier also and brought before the Supreme Court on two occasions."

"The matter was dismissed by the Supreme Court. The petitioners were also in possession of information from highly confidential internal documents, which is a serious offence. Irrespective of the maintainability of the complaint, CBI has provided most of the files as requested by the CVC and the remaining will be submitted soon. There is no substance in the media reports that CBI is not cooperating in the enquiry," the statement read.

CBI said that the allegations of preventing raids against the accused in the IRCTC case are "absolutely false."

"The investigation of the case has resulted in filing a chargesheet before the designated court. This could not have been possible without the explicit approval of the Director CBI," the agency added.

According to reports, in his complaint to the CVC, Asthana alleged interference in the probes undertaken by the special investigation team under him.