A special court on February 19 pulled up the Central Bureau of Investigation for not conducting a lie detector or psychological test on its former Special Director Rakesh Asthana in an alleged bribery case.
The court, which had earlier in the day asked the agency to submit the case diary for examination, also enquired about the previous investigating officer, Ajay Kumar Bassi.
The CBI submitted that Mr. Bassi had been transferred to Port Blair, but he was currently in Delhi. He was taken off the case after the then agency chief, Alok Kumar Verma, was shunted out.
The next date of hearing has been fixed for February 28.
Mr. Verma was stripped off his powers days after the case was registered, amid allegations and counter allegations between him and Mr. Asthana.
Also read | Who is Rakesh Asthana?
The court is yet to take cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the CBI, giving a clean chit to Mr. Asthana and Deputy Superintendent of Police Devender Kumar who was earlier arrested in the case.
The charge sheet names Manoj Prasad as the accused. During the last hearing, the court had reprimanded the agency, wondering why an accused, Somesh Prasad, having a bigger role was roaming free, but it arrested its own official.
The case was registered in October 2018, on a complaint from Hyderabad-based businessman Sana Sathish Babu, against Mr. Asthana, Mr. Kumar, Dubai-based investment banker Manoj and his brother Somesh.
Mr. Babu had alleged that he paid over Rs.3 crore to get relief in another case against meat exporter Moin Qureshi and others. In July 2019, the ED arrested Mr. Babu in a money laundering case linked to Mr. Qureshi and filed a charge sheet against him last week.