Shortly after taking over as interim CBI Director , M. Nageshwar Rao issued orders transferring or giving additional charge to 13 officials in the agency. The list includes key persons probing or supervising the case against second-in-command Rakesh Asthana and others, on allegations of extortion and corruption.
As a fallout of the infighting between CBI Director Alok Verma and Mr. Asthana, the Department of Personnel and Training issued an order late on Tuesday asking Joint Director Mr. Rao to take over from Mr. Verma.
The CBI had registered an FIR against Mr. Asthana , accusing him and Deputy Superintendent of Police Devender Kumar of extortion and corruption. Mr. Kumar was arrested and is now in CBI custody.
Mr. Verma has been sent on leave along with Mr. Asthana.
CBI Deputy Superintendent of Police A.K. Bassi, the Anti-Corruption-III unit officer investigating the case against its Special Director Rakesh Asthana and others, has been transferred to Port Blair in “public interest”.
Additional Director Arun Kumar Sharma, who headed the key Policy division, has been shifted to the Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency probing the larger conspiracy behind the assassination of former PM Rajiv Gandhi. S.S. Gurm, Additional Superintendent of Police of Anti Corruption-III, was moved to Jabalpur and its Deputy Inspector General of Police, Manish Kumar Sinha, who was supervising the case, has been transferred to Nagpur — all in “public interest”.
The new team that will pursue the Asthana case includes DIG Tarun Gauba, who investigated the Vyapam scam case; Joint Director V. Murugesan, who probed the Ram Rahim case; and SP Satish Dagar, who was part of the team that probed the coal scam.
Mr. Gauba, who was with the Chandigarh Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB), has replaced Mr. Sinha, while DIG (Special Crime) Jasbir Singh has been given an additional charge of Banking Securities and Fraud Cell. Anees Prasad, DIG of the Surveillance Unit, has been sent to the Administration and Personnel wing.
K.R. Chaurasia of the Econonic Offences-I unit has been given additional charge of the Surveillance Unit-I, officer Ram Gopal now has the additional responsibility of Chandigarh ACB, and Superintendent of Police Satish Dagar of Economic Offences-III unit has been transferred to Anti-Corruption-III in Delhi,
Joint Director (Chandigarh) Sai Manohar, who operates from Delhi, now holds the additional charge of two important divisions, Special Investigation Team and the Technical, Forensic & Co-ordination unit. DIG Amit Kumar has been given responsibility of Policy division, which is an equally important division.
