CBI vs CBI: recap of the week of the drama

It has unfolded as the events of a book by John Le Carre – a great novelist of espionage. There was a high stakes ego battle. Two of the country's top police officers have been charged with crimes. Newspapers made fantastic headlines. And the drama, which also involved spies in the literal sense, was played more and more publicly.

In summary, this is what happened last week at the Central Bureau of Investigation, the highest court of Indian police, whose two highest officers, Chief Alok Verma and his deputy, Rakesh Asthana, were engaged in a bitter struggle.

The long-running quarrel within the agency has become a public spectacle after the IWC has opposed one of the two officers, No. 2 Rakesh Asthana.

This is what the agency did by registering a first information report (FIR) and naming Asthana as the No. 1 defendant in a bribery case involving a bribe of 3 crores of RS. Meanwhile, it also appeared that Asthana had already written to the government accusing its IWC leader and head, Alok Verma, of accepting a bribe of 2 crores.

And then, the gloves were off.

In the days following the FIR, several incredible events took place. This included the continuation of the IWC by the IWC when it was conducting searches at its own headquarters in New Delhi.

The CBI has also arrested one of its own officers – an assistant superintendent of police officer named Devender Kumar. The agency suggested that the police officer had close ties with Asthana and was trying to involve Alok Verma – the head of the IWC – in a corruption case.

Yes, IWC agent No. 2, Rakesh Asthana, reportedly set up a plot to eliminate the first, Alok Verma.

That's at least what the CBI claims, headed by Alok Verma, and such was the situation at the beginning of the week.

TUESDAY

All eyes were on Tuesday on the Delhi High Court, where Rakesh Asthana had filed a petition seeking the protection of the IWC against any coercive action against him.

It was much later that we learned that the Asthana petition was motivated by the arrival of four IWC officers at his home before dawn on Tuesday.

The men apparently wanted to raid Asthana's home as part of the corruption case against him.

After staying at Asthana's home for 12 hours, the CBI agents finally left after the Delhi High Court warned the IWC to take no enforcement action against Asthana until the next hearing. of the court.

TUESDAY EVENING

Meanwhile, frantic activity was taking place in the government, behind the scenes. Once again, we had to know it much later.

• The Central Vigilance Commission, which oversees the IWC's investigations, met in New Delhi.
• At the meeting, charges of corruption against Alok Verma and corruption charges against Rakesh Asthana were discussed.
• The board felt that, in order for the charges to be considered fairly, the two officers had to be kept out of the workplace. The CVC therefore recommended that the government send Alok Verma and Rakesh Asthana on leave.
• The government accepted the recommendation and issued an order to that effect by midnight.

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday, at dawn, we finally learned what had happened the night before.

A copy of the order dated 23 October (ie, Tuesday) indicated that Nageshwar Rao – a co-director of the IWC – would assume the duties and responsibilities of the Director of the IWC, a position held by Alok Verma, provisionally.

MUST READ | WHAT A MESS! CBI and the Modi government can they recover from this setback?

Verma and Asthana both remain IWC officers. But only in name. Both have no power associated with their positions. Nor can they return to their offices.

This was clearly explained by the way Rao "took the lead". On Wednesday around 1 am, Delhi police surrounded the IWC headquarters on Lodhi Road in New Delhi.

A few minutes later, Nageshwar Rao entered the building and temporarily closed the Verma and Asthana offices to ensure that the information and case files handled by the two officers would not be tampered with.

Then, Rao proceeded to a reshuffle of the highest officers of the CBI. A dozen officers have been transferred to "the public interest".

Among them were officers who were investigating the Rakesh Asthana corruption case, including the head of the investigation, AK Bassi, who had been transferred to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

A few hours after the dramatic developments within the IWC, the government finally broke its silence on the war between Alok Verma and Rakesh Asthana, calling for the development of the agency "strange and unhappy".

The government also issued a statement (read full text here) accusing Verma of failing to cooperate with the Central Vigilance Commission in the open investigation against the corruption charges against him. The statement says:

• On August 24, 2018, following a complaint about various allegations against IWC officials, the CVC sent three separate notifications … to the Director of the IWC to produce records and documents before the Commission.
• Despite repeated assurances and reminders, the IWC Director did not provide the files / files to the Commission.
• The CVC also observed that the Director of the CBI had not cooperated with the Commission, had not complied with the Commission's requirements / instructions and had deliberately hindered the functioning of the Commission, which is a constitutional body.

Verma also asked the Supreme Court to challenge the order to send him on leave. The court agreed to hear the case on Friday and it seemed that the situation would be stable at least for a day.

Or so, we thought.

THURSDAY

The endless saga of CBI took another turn at dawn.

At around 6:00 am, security agents saw spectacular images that brought two men outside Alok Verma's home in New Delhi.

The two men were part of a larger group of four people watching the stranger "suspiciously" in front of Verma's house.

It eventually turned out that these men belonged to the Intelligence Bureau, the internal espionage agency of India. The IB acknowledged that these men were his agents, but they claimed that they were in front of Verma's home while they were conducting a "routine patrol".

#WATCH: Previous visuals of two of the four people (who were seen outside the residence of #AlokVerma) being taken for questioning. #CBI #Delhi pic.twitter.com/2KnqNfrnH0

ANI (@ANI) October 25, 2018

The men, who carried cards identifying them as IB officers, were briefly detained at Verma's home and handed over to the Delhi police, who then released them.

FRIDAY

The supreme drama of the IWC finally reached the Supreme Court on Friday morning as a three-judge court headed by the CJI, Ranjan Gogoi, had heard Alok Verma's appeal against forced permission.

His deputy, Rakesh Asthana, also pleaded a similar plea, but the court told him that he had missed the bus and told him that his plea would be heard next week.

While hearing Verma's plea, the court set a two-week deadline for the Central Vigilance Commission to investigate allegations of corruption against him and asked Nageshwar Rao not to make any significant political decisions as chief. of the IWC.

The court also asked Rao to inform him of all decisions – including transfers – that he had made between the time he was appointed Interim Director of the IWC and the hearing. of the Supreme Court Friday.

And so, in the CBI vs CBI war, the weapons do not shoot.

At least for the moment.

READ 7 years, 3 directors: the story of Moin Qureshi and his exploits at the CBI

READ Free food, hotel rooms at Rs 175 at night: Rakesh Asthana's daughter's wedding on CBI's radar

READ The boss of CBI opened the door while he was about to probe Prime Minister Modi's role in Rafale: Rahul Gandhi

WATCH | What future for CBI after the bitter feud inside?

Get real-time alerts and all the news on your phone with the brand new India Today app. Download from

• 
•