NGO challenges Asthana's appointment as spl director in CBI

An NGO today challenged the appointment of Gujarat cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana as a special director in the CBI, alleging in the Supreme Court that his son was employed in a private firm which is being investigated by the central probe agency.
A bench of Justices R K Agrawal and A M Sapre, which had on November 17 agreed to hear the matter, was told by the advocate for the petitioner NGO Common Cause that the company had allegedly made large payoffs and opened a number of offshore entities and benami companies in India, as per FIRs lodged by the CBI itself.

"The counsel for the petitioner has come to know that the son of Respondent No 2 (Asthana) had been in the employment of Sterling Biotech as Assistant Manager between 2010 and 2012," the petition, filed by advocate Prashant Bhushan, said, demanding quashing of Asthana's appointment.
The plea has alleged that the decision to appoint Asthana was "illegal" and "arbitrary" and claimed that the CBI was probing a matter in which Asthana's name has cropped up.
It has also sought a direction to the Centre to transfer him out of the agency during the pendency of investigation.
The NGO has claimed that the government and the selection committee had overruled the opinion of the CBI Director while appointing Asthana "in violation of the law".

It said that a special director was the second in command in the CBI after the director and supervised almost all important cases being handled by the agency.
On November 17, the bench had said it would today hear the plea challenging Asthana's appointment.