In a swift turn of events on Tuesday, senior CBI officer AK Bassi moved the Supreme court, claiming he has incriminating evidence against former CBI special director Rakesh Asthana.
Bassi, who was investigating corruption cases against the CBI number 2, had been transferred to Port Blair following the meltdown at the top crime investigation agency last week. Bassi has also challenged in Supreme Court his transfer to Port Blair.
Bassi told the apex court that a special investigation team should probe the bribery charges against Asthana in the cases related to meat merchant and serial fixer, Moin Qureshi.
The senior CBI sleuth's controversial transfer had come after the midnight shakeup at the agency last week, in which Director Alok Verma and Special Director Asthana were divested of charges.
The officer submitted in court that he evidence to prove that Asthana was involved in a 3.3 crore bribe in the Qureshi case. He cited WhatsApp messages and calls as proof.
CBI Director Verma and Asthana were at loggerheads for months but the registration of a bribery case against the special director proved to be the point of no return.
Asthana was accused of demanding Rs 5 crore from a Hyderabad-based businessman to let him off in the Moin Qureshi case. Verma also accused Asthana of corruption in the Sterling Biotech case.
In turn, Asthana accused Verma of corruption and stopping a raid on Lalu Prasad in the IRCTC case and interfering in other probes.
