By Sushil Kutty
For the first time in Central Bureau of Investigation history, the top-dog and second top-dog in the CBI are engaged in an ugly dogfight, each snapping at the heels of the other, leaving it to the imagination as to who is Honest George Washington – CBI Director Alok Verma or CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana? To complicate matters, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was drawn into the controversy and his brag “Na Khaunga Na Khaane Doonga” slipped a disc.
That was on Monday. Tuesday the spine was sagging with more discs slipping after the CBI admitted in court that an “extortion racket” was being run from within the CBI headquarters in Delhi. “By whom” and “under whom?” spelled the divide. Asthana charged for “by whom?” and Verma for “under whom?’ With that Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s charge that the CBI was in “terminal stage” stood virtually vindicated.
The fight on Tuesday was in the courts – Patiala House and Delhi High Court. Asthana team member deputy superintendent Devinder Kumar was arrested on Monday and he was produced in a Patiala House court with the CBI seeking his custody for questioning, claiming that it had recovered incriminating evidence from Devender Kumar, who along with Rakesh Asthana also moved the Delhi High Court for quashing the FIR.
The irony is that Monday CBI Director Alok Verma met Prime Minister Modi and Modi told him to “let the law take its own course.” Verma called Asthana “disgruntled and tainted” and that’s a big allegation because Asthana is from the Gujarat cadre of the IPS and is believed to have been brought into the CBI by Modi himself in a “midnight operation”. In fact, Rahul Gandhi called him the “blue-eyed boy of Modi infiltrated into the CBI.”
Verma accused Asthana of taking a bribe and Asthana charged Verma with stalling investigation in a corruption case involving notorious meat exporter Moin Qureshi. Asthana allegedly was paid a bribe of nearly Rs 5 crore by Dubai associates of Qureshi. Verma in turn has been accused of receiving crores in gratification for stalling the case against Qureshi.
Remember the Supreme Court had not long ago said that the “CBI is the caged parrot” of the Central Government. Now, it emerges that the cage is gilt-edged with money in the crores paid into the pockets of CBI officials. Verma, for all his bold extortion racket revelation, opens himself to charges of being incompetent and totally clueless as to what was happening right under his nose.
Just for that, the current crop of CBI officials should like Little Tommy and Denis the Menace be made to stand in the corner and sing nursery rhymes. Because of them, the “FBI of India” is being labelled the “Corrupt Bureau of Investigation”. Unpardonable. The CBI started out Honest George Washington but has ended up Watergate Nixon!
The question is not ‘who is Nixon, Verma or Asthana?’ The question is who does Prime Minister Narendra Modi think is Nixon? For sure, as far as Modi is concerned, his “blue-eyed boy” would not have the squint eyes of a liar. Or, maybe, for all we know, Verma is acting on orders from Modi? That doesn’t mean Modi is not in a fix. Asthana, because he is from the Gujarat IPS cadre, taints the narrative for Modi. A former CBI joint-director recalls Asthana as a “brilliant investigator”, who as “CBI Dhanbad” investigated Lalu Yadav in the fodder scam, and “then went back to the Gujarat cadre.” Asthana investigated, among other cases, the Godhra train burning before being made CBI Special Director – “CBI No.2”.
“CBI No.1” Alok Verma did not like the choice one bit. The Alok Verma-Rakesh Asthana relationship began with frost and has since turned into ice! Verma was Commissioner of Delhi and is an ex-DGP Tihar Jail. And he is said to be a low-key officer. Modi and Asthana on the other hand are both said to get along like a house on fire!
Asthana was assigned to head the CBI SIT probing “half a dozen UPA-time cases” including the coal scam. He was given charge of investigating Mallya emptying bank vaults and the Aircel-Maxis involving P Chidamabaram’s son Karti C. Apart from Lalu’s conviction, Asthana has nothing much to show in terms of success, except probably in giving Karti a couple of nervous breakdowns as Modi went about ‘Congress-mukting’ India.
Hidden in the folds of the “CBI No.1-CBI No.2” dirty spat saga are several pages packed with Modi’s failures, the biggest of which is his “Na Khaunga Na Khaane Doonga” brag, which turned out emptier than a hot air balloon – ‘Feku’ in Internet slang. Now, the flames of alleged corruption are singeing Modi’s churidaar folds and the CBI Fire Brigade cannot be called because it too is up in flames. Two guys getting on like a house on fire can, if they’re allegedly mouthing honest lies, engulf and bring the whole edifice down.
Modi’s problem is that Asthana brought with him a load, and a lode – baggage and loyalty. As it turns out, Asthana in disguise as an officer with an “impeccable record” is not a blessing! Ditto with Alok Verma, another officer with an “impeccable record.” Now, with the “infiltrator” too accused of taking bribes, PM Modi is left with little to say in Asthana’s defence, except to say “let the law to take its own course.”
Doubts of whether the government is “trying to cover-up” will beg the question: “Can you trust much of what’s being said?” Parroting time-tested excuses are out the window. The door is open to the allegation: “The Modi regime is not corruption-free.” A lot of the story is still not known but the story is getting complicated by the day. In a country of people with no money to put socks on their feet, even the perception of corruption can decide election outcomes as it happened to the UPA.
The UPA paid in MPs for sporting a corrupt face. Will the BJP end up in the same drudge report? Draining the swamp of corrupt creatures is a Trump fantasy that Narendra Modi gave the impression of hugging but apparently never actually held to heart. Till now it was “we never saw it, so it (corruption) never exists” but that may not be for long if Verma’s CBI keeps digging Asthana’s CBI and finds dirt that sticks, over and above “running an extortion racket.” Politically, Modi’s party could get royally screwed.
Will a money trail be established? If so, to whom will it lead to? Big money routed through Dubai with origins in a Hyderabad slaughterhouse. Alok Verma’s tenure cops out in January 2019 and he has only time till then to dig through to the tunnel leading to the government’s soft underbelly. That if Modi doesn’t take the helpful advice of some people to “disable the duo” and appoint CBI No.3 to find out which of the two is Honest George Washington – CBI No.1 Alok Verma or CBI No.2 Rakesh Asthana? (IPA Service)
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