Intervened in CBI infighting to protect public's confidence: Centre to SC

SC to next hear CBI director Alok Verma's plea against being sent on leave on December 5

Reiterating its stand that public interest was paramount, the central government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that it had intervened in the infighting between Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) Alok Verma and Rakesh Asthana to ensure that nation’s confidence in the probe agency did not fade.

“Government’s intervention was to protect the public confidence in CBI, which was getting negative in view of the serious fight between two of its top officials. Government intervention was in public interest,” Attorney General K K Venugopal told a three judge bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice S K Kaul and Justice