CBI Vs CBI: Supreme Court to hear Alok Verma’s plea on Friday

by

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will on Friday hear a plea by CBI Director Alok Verma challenging the Centre’s order asking him to proceed on leave.

Senior Advocates Fali S Nariman and Sanjay Hegde will be representing Verma in the court.

Former Attorney General of India and Senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi would be representing CBI special director Rakesh Asthana.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on Wednesday said Verma’s plea would be taken up on October 26 after his counsel pressed for an urgent hearing on the midnight order issued against the central probe agency’s chief following an escalation of a rift between the top officials at the Bureau over bribery charges.

Verma had two more months to go before his tenure ends and the government cannot formally remove him, counsel contended.

Meanwhile, security forces have been deployed outside CBI office in Lucknow ahead of Congress protest against the removal of CBI Director Alok Verma.

Trinamool Congress to join the Congress party protest led by Rahul Gandhi at CBI headquarters.

Special Director Rakesh Asthana and Verma were at loggerheads on several issues and accused each other of blocking investigation of several important cases.

The CBI had recently filed an FIR against Asthana for allegedly accepting a bribe from a businessman, who was linked to the Moin Akhtar Qureshi case. Asthana was heading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was probing Qureshi’s case.

Amid this tug of war, the Centre divested Verma and Asthana from their respective roles and sent both of them on leave.

M Nageshwar Rao was appointed as the interim director of the CBI with immediate effect on Wednesday.

Agency inputs