In a petition filed by a DIG rank officer, Manish Prasad Sinha, in the SC, it has been alleged that NSA Ajit Doval intervened in the CBI probe against Rakesh Asthana.
Manish Sinha who was abruptly transferred on October 24 to Nagpur, was heading the Anti-Corruption Unit III which was probing the Rakesh Asthana case plea. He has made a litany of allegations in his petition before the SC that sought an urgent hearing for quashing his transfer to Nagpur.
Advocate Sunil Fernandes, appearing for Sinha, informed a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi that his client has “got some shocking revelations” in his petition and sought urgent listing and hearing along with the plea of CBI Director Alok Verma.
“Nothing shocks us,” the bench, also comprising Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph, shot back, as it ruled out urgent hearing and asked Fernandes to be present in the court when it will hear Verma’s plea challenging the government’s decision to divest him of duties and sending him on leave.
Sinha, whose plea is yet to be accepted by SC, alleged that when a team of CBI officers was conducting raids at the residence of Devinder Kumar, a Deputy SP rank officer of CBI, who has been named as co-accused in the bribery case against Rakesh Asthana, Doval asked CBI Director Alok Verma to stop the searches.
He also said that during the interrogation of a middleman Manoj Prasad, who was arrested in the bribery case allegedly involving Asthana, the names of Doval and Samant Kumar Goel, Special Director of India’s external intelligence agency (R&AW) cropped up.
He has claimed in his petition that Manoj Prasad had boasted that his father, Dineshwar Prasad, a retired Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officer had close ties with Doval.
Sinha in his petition, further added that “He started bragging and claimed that his brother Shri Somesh is very close to an officer at Dubai (name withheld) and to Samant Goel, presently Special Secretary, R&AW and he can get us “finished off” / “kicked out. Manoj taunted us that you people have no standing whatsoever and therefore should “stay in limits” and let him free. He claimed that recently his brother Somesh and Samant Goel helped the NSA Ajit Doval on an important personal matter.”
However, the veracity of these claims by Manoj Prasad was never confirmed.
Meanwhile, Sinha also alleged that Hyderabad-based businessman Satish Babu Sana, who is the complainant in the case against Asthana, told during interrogation that sometime in the first fortnight of June 2018, a few crores of rupees were paid to Union Minister Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary, at present Minister of State for coal.