Plea against Asthana’s posting

Petition in SC seeks to quash his appointment as CBI Special Director

Rakesh Asthana

A petition was filed on Thursday in the Supreme Court to quash the appointment of Gujarat cadre IPS officer, R.K. Asthana, as Special Director of the CBI on October 22.

The petition filed by NGO Common Cause, represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, asked the court to direct the government to transfer Mr. Asthana out of the investigating agency during the pendency of a CBI probe into a corruption case allegedly involving him.

The petition further asked the court to direct the government to produce the entire record relating to the selection and appointment of Mr. Asthana as CBI Special Director, including the agenda, the minutes of the selection committee meeting under Section 4C of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, and the note and material put up by the CBI Director regarding the proposed appointment of Mr. Asthana. Section 4C was inserted in the DSPE Act to provide that appointments to the posts of Superintendent of Police and above shall be made by a committee comprising the CVC, VCs and Home Secretary and Secretary (Personnel), in consultation with the CBI Director.

The petition alleged that Mr. Asthana’s appointment was reportedly made despite objections raised by the CBI chief. “The decision of the committee to appoint Mr. Asthana as Special Director and rejecting the opinion of the CBI Director apparently without any effective reasoning is therefore invalid,” the petition contended.

The committee ought not to reject the opinion of the CBI Director on such a crucial question of integrity at such a high post without giving convincing and strong counter-reasoning for doing so, the petition said.

In Godhra probe team

The petition said Mr. Asthana was part of the SIT set up by the Gujarat government to probe the Godhra train burning case.

The petition quoted news reports to say that he is also associated with several high-profile and politically sensitive cases registered by the CBI, including the recent case against RJD chief Lalu Prasad over alleged irregularities in awarding certain tenders as Railway Minister.