NEW DELHI: Certain claims made by a
CBI deputy inspector general,
MK Sinha, in a petition in the
Supreme Court have put the spotlight on the role of its director of prosecution (DoP) in the internal clash within the top probe agency.
According to Sinha, the DoP had informed on the morning of October 23 that a “witness” in the money-laundering case against meat exporter
Moin Qureshi had paid a bribe of Rs 50 lakh to the investigating officer, DSP Devinder Kumar. According to the DoP, this was to “escape harassment”, Sinha said in his petition, seeking quashing of his transfer to Nagpur from Delhi.
A week earlier, on October 15, the CBI under director
Alok Verma had filed an FIR against special director Rakesh Asthana, Kumar and two “middlemen” after a Hyderabad-based businessman accused them to taking a bribe. Sinha, who was part of the team that registered the FIR, was transferred to Nagpur after the government asked the warring Verma and Asthana to go on leave. The purported “disclosure” of the DoP about Kumar accepting bribe from another Hyderabad businessman, as claimed by Sinha, came a day after CBI arrested the DSP on October 22.
A month before, the DoP was forwarded a proposal by CBI director Verma seeking to arrest the same businessman, Pradeep Koneru, for allegedly paying a bribe to government officials through “middleman” Qureshi. This proposal was moved by Kumar and submitted by Asthana to the director on September 20. According to Asthana, Verma had deliberately delayed the proposal and sent it to the DoP rather than making a decision. The proposal was moved by Kumar, the investigating officer.
Sinha’s claims, if those can be believed, raise a question. If the DoP knew about the alleged payment of bribe by Koneru, why did he not share it before October 23, especially when an FIR was already registered against Kumar. More so, when it was Kumar who was seeking to arrest Koneru on charges of paying bribes to officials.
Moreover, Sinha in his petition before the SC, claimed that according to Satish Babu Sana, the accused-turned-complainant in the FIR against Asthana and others, bribes were paid by him to other senior government functionaries as well. His petition names the minister of state for coal and mines for allegedly accepting a “few crores of rupees” in the “first fortnight of June”. Names of the chief of Central Vigilance Commission and union law secretary also find a mention in Sinha’s petition, for allegedly reaching out to Sana to ensure relief to him in Qureshi case.