India
The CBI claims to have analysed nine phone calls immediately after middleman Manoj Prasad was held in the alleged bribery case against Asthana
New Delhi: The fight between the top two cops in the country's premier investigating agency CBI is heating up by the day. The CBI has filed a bribery case against special director Rakesh Asthana, who had written to the government listing several charges against his boss Alok Verma.
The CBI claims to have analysed nine phone calls immediately after middleman Manoj Prasad was held in the alleged bribery case against Asthana, to allege that there was panic after the middleman's brother got "wind" of the arrest, officials said Sunday.
The agency has registered a case against Asthana on the basis of claims made by a businessman, Sathish Sana, probed by him in a separate case, that he was asked to pay a bribe of Rs 5 crore by Manoj Prasad, an investment banker based in Dubai to get relief from repeated summons and a clean chit in the case, they said.
Highlights of the case:
• The CBI’s FIR is based on the claims of Satish Sana, a Hyderabad-based businessman investigated in connection with meat exporter Moin Qureshi, who is accused of money-laundering.
• Sana alleged that he was asked to pay a bribe of Rs 5 crore to Asthana to be rid of the case. Asthana was the investigating officer.
• Manoj Prasad was the middleman who asked him to pay the bribe. Prasad was arrested on October 16 while returning from Dubai on his way to collect the bribe.
• The CBI claimed to have analysed nine phone calls immediately after his arrest.
• The calls were allegedly exchanged between Asthana and a senior officer of another intelligence agency.
• The calls were also exchanged between the senior officer and the wife of the middleman Somesh Prasad, brother of middleman Manoj Prasad, among others, an officer claimed.
• Asthana alleged that it was the CBI chief Alok Verma who took the bribe in case of Moin Qureshi. Qureshi is being investigated for allegedly channelling illegal money through Dubai, London and other parts of Europe.
• Sana ‘admitted’ to bribing the CBI director during an investigation. This was revealed in Asthana’s letter to the Cabinet Secretary.
• Asthana also alleged he was framed for preventing Sama from skipping the country and pressing him to cooperate with the investigation
• Asthana had also accused the CBI chief of trying to frame him in the case of Sterling Biotech.
• The CBI director had objected to the appointment of Asthana as he was under investigation in the Sterling Biotech case.
The case has taken a political twist with Congress president Rahul Gandhi targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the infighting.
With agency inputs
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