HC order on Asthana plea seeking quashing of FIR on Friday

The Delhi High Court will deliver on Friday its verdict on Special CBI Director Rakesh Asthana's plea seeking quashing of the FIR against him.

On December 20, 2018, Justice Najmi Waziri reserved the order on Asthana and suspended Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Devender Kumar's pleas seeking quashing of FIRs against them.

Asthana has said the cases were registered against them in an illegal manner with mala fide intention.

CBI Director Alok Verma's counsel has justified the agency's action against Asthana, saying the registration of FIR was in compliance of all existing laws, regulations and made following due procedure.

According to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Kumar fabricated the statement of Satish Sana Babu, a witness in the businessman Moin Qureshi case, showing he recorded the statement on September 26, 2018 in Delhi.

However, investigation revealed that Sana was not in Delhi on that day. He was in Hyderabad and joined the investigation only on October 1, 2018.

The CBI has registered an FIR against Asthana, Kumar and two others, alleging that they took bribes at least five times between December 2017 and October 2018.

Asthana, a 1984-batch IPS officer of the Gujarat cadre, is accused of accepting a bribe of Rs 2 crore from a businessman who was being probed in the Qureshi case to "wreck" the investigation. The case was being examined by a special investigation team headed by Asthana.

On October 24, Alok Verma was divested of his charge and Joint Director M. Nageshwar Rao was made the interim Director. Asthana was also divested of all his supervisory responsibilities.

The government took the decision after Verma and Asthana accused each other of taking bribes.

In a partial relief to CBI Director Alok Verma, the Supreme Court on Tuesday restored him as the agency chief by setting aside the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and the Centre's decision to divest him of his powers to function as its head but with a caveat that he will not take any policy decision till a high-level committee goes into the issue afresh.

--IANS

akk/nir