Amid infighting among the CBI top brass, Director Alok Verma has been taken off duty and replaced by Nageshwar Rao, a Joint Director. His deputy, Special Director Rakesh Asthana, who is embroiled in bribery cases, has been sent on leave too, according to news agency PTI. A govt order surfaced on Wednesday morning stating the change was an interim measure.

According to PTI, CBI building has been sealed and neither staff nor outsiders are being allowed inside the premises.

Nageshwar Rao, Joint Director given the charge of CBI Director pic.twitter.com/kfiH3oynky

— Arvind Gunasekar (@arvindgunasekar) October 24, 2018

As reported earlier by Business Standard, a team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths on Monday conducted a raid on the 10th floor of its own headquarters in New Delhi while the two warring top bosses were summoned by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). To add to the public slugfest already in play, ‘top secret’ letters by the bosses, making bribery allegations against each other, surfaced.

After the CBI filed an FIR against its Special Director Rakesh Asthana alleging that he took a bribe of Rs 3 million, the top investigating agency seems to be unravelling from the top. Several media reports have said that a letter written by Asthana to the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) alleges that he is being framed by CBI chief Alok Verma.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the CBI to maintain status quo on the criminal proceedings initiated against Asthana, who has challenged the FIR lodged against him on bribery allegations.

Rakesh Asthana has drawn up a laundry list of cases against Director Alok Verma and other top CBI officials according to Hindustan Times. He has apparently listed a dozen charges, double the number that the CBI has him docked for. Verma is reportedly considering writing to the govt for Asthana's removal as his position in the agency is 'untenable'.

In a surprising and unprecedented move on October 15, the CBI has booked Special Director Rakesh Asthana and investigation officer of the case on the charges for receiving bribe from Sana through middlemen Manoj Prasad and Somesh Prasad.

The CBI has arrested Devender Kumar, the DySP and investigation officer, alleging that he had fabricated the statement of Sana purportedly claiming that a Rajya Sabha MP had met Verma on his pending case and assured him of relief and a clean chit.