CBI vs CBI: The turf war between 2 directors was public in all its ugliness

Ironical as it was, sleuths of the Central Bureau of Investigation, or CBI, raided offices located in their own headquarters in New Delhi at midnight on October 24. The turf war between CBI director Alok Verma and his deputy, special director Rakesh Asthana, which had been brewing since July, was now in the public domain in all its ugliness.

The Narendra Modi government sent Verma and Asthana on leave and transferred nearly a dozen officers. It appointed M Nageswara Rao as the agency’s interim chief. CBI directors get a fixed two-year term. Verma, whose term was to run until February, knocked