New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday shot off a letter to Prime Minister Modi, asking him to make public all key documents related to the sacked CBI chief Alok Verma and let “public draw its own conclusions in this matter.” In his capacity as a member of the CBI selection committee, he also demanded an immediate meeting of the committee to appoint a director without delay.
He dubbed the appointment of M Nageswara Rao as interim director as “illegal,” since it was neither covered under the law nor had it been vetted by the selection committee. The documents he sought to be made public include the Central Vigilance Commission report, details of the selection committee on January 10 that sacked Verma and Justice A K Patnaik’s report on Verma.
The selection committee that met at PM’s residence on Thursday was headed by the Prime Minister and comprised Kharge and Supreme Court judge A K Sikri as the Chief Justice of India’s nominee. Kharge said in his letter: “The actions of the government in this matter indicate that it is scared of having the CBI headed by an independent Director. The government should come clean by releasing the CVC Report, the report of Justice (AK) Patnaik and the minutes of the meeting held on 10 January.”
“The removal of Alok Verma on 10th Jan 2019 was made without following either due process of law or the principles of natural justice,” Kharge writes in his two-page letter, asserting that “a committee that consists of senior representatives of the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary should not take a decision merely on a report prepared by an outside agency, howsoever competent, without vetting that report and applying its own mind.”