Complaint by Asthana against CBI Chief 'malicious, frivolous'

The CBI on Friday described the complaint by its Special Director Rakesh Asthana to the CVC against its chief Alok Verma as "malicious" and "frivolous" and said that the complaint is aimed to malign his image and intimidate the officials.

"It is unfortunate that baseless and frivolous allegations are being made publicly without proper verification of facts to malign the image of the Director CBI and intimidate the officials of the organization," the Central Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.

It is stated that the CVC has sought for certain case files from the CBI on the basis of a complaint filed by its Special Director.

"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 (Asthana) to intimidate the officers of CBI who are investigating his role in at least half a dozen cases," it said.

The CBI remarks came after media reports claimed that Asthana had filed a complaint before the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) alleging interference in the probes undertaken by the Special Investigation Team under him.

The agency 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 agency also said that the CBI has pointed out in its letter to CVC that the issue relating to the IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp) 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," it said.

The agency also refuted the allegation of preventing raids against the accused in the IRCTC case.

"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 CBI Director," it added.

--IANS

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