SC snubs Asthana, refuses him CVC probe report copy

NEW DELHI: Special director Rakesh Asthana lit the fire of suspicion against CBI director Alok Verma by sending a complaint against him to the cabinet secretary on August 24 but the Supreme Court on Friday refused to give him a copy of the CVC inquiry report against Verma.

Appearing before a bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi, Asthana's counsel and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi sought parity with Verma, attorney general K K Venugopal and solicitor general Tushar Mehta, all of whom were provided copies of the CVC report. The SC has asked all three to maintain utmost confidentiality of the report.

In a veiled reference to the sealed cover procedure adopted by the same bench while dealing with petitions seeking a CBI probe into the Rafale deal, Rohatgi sought to justify his demand for a copy of the CVC report by saying, "This case does not involve security of the country. So why not give a copy of the report. I was the complainant in the case. I had given a complaint to the cabinet Secretary on August 24."

CJI Gogoi asked Rohatgi, "Under what authority did you file a complaint before the cabinet secretary? Is he your superior? We do not think you (Asthana) are entitled to a copy of the report."

Asthana's complaint was forwarded to the CVC for inquiry. However, Verma had refused repeated requests from the CVC when it had sought documents from the CBI related to cases mentioned by Asthana in his complaint.

The feud between Verma and Asthana spilled into the public domain and led to the CBI filing an FIR against Asthana. On October 23, the Centre had instituted a formal inquiry by the CVC and asked both Verma and Asthana to go on leave.

Asthana had based his complaint to the cabinet secretary on August 24 alleging wrongdoing by Verma in the Qureshi case as well as other cases on Sana's confessional statement to the CBI in August. But the same Sana on October 15 gave another statement to the CBI, which led to DSP A K Bassi registering an FIR against Asthana claiming that Rs 3 crore was extorted from the businessman in the name of the special director .

Days after, Bassi too moved the SC challenging his transfer to Port Blair and justifying the FIR against Asthana.