CBI books its second in command: Part of bribe allegedly paid at Press Club Delhi

New Delhi, Oct 22: The Central Bureau of Investigation booked its second in command, Rakesh Asthana in a bribery case linked to meat exporter Moin Qureshi. This was a charge levelled by CBI director, Alok Verma in his complaint to the Cabinet Secretary two months back.

The case was registered on the basis of a complaint by Satish Sana, facing probe in the 2017 case allegedly involving Qureshi. He had alleged that the officer had allegedly helped him get a clean chit. It may be recalled that the CBI had arrested Manoj Prasad, an alleged middleman when he returned to India from Dubai in October 2016.

The FIR also went on to state that a part of the payment was made in the parking lot of the Press Club, New Delhi. 'Believing them and to get rid of unbearable harassment and mental agony being faced by me and my family, I arranged and paid an amount equivalent to INR Rs 1 crore to Manoj Prasad at his office in Dubai. Thereafter on being informed by Somesh Prasad about the details of one Sunil Mittal, his contact person, I arranged payment of Rs 1.95 crore to Mittal. This payment was made on December 13 2017 at about 9.25 pm in the parking area of the Press Club of India, Rasina Road, New Delhi through my office person namely Purohit."

It was alleged by Sana that Prasad and his brother Somesh had taken money to arrange a clean chit for him.

The CBI moved against Asthana following the arrest of a Dubai based middleman Manoj Prasad. Moin Qureshi was raided by the Income Tax department in 2014 and his messages with former CBI director A P Singh had led to Singh's resignation as member of the Union Public Services Commission. In 2017, the CBI registered a case and this was one of the many major cases being handled by Asthana.

A complainant in the case, Sana Satish had on October 4 named Asthana before the Magistrate. He also claimed that he was being harassed by CBI officers to pay more. It was also detained how Rs 3 crore had been paid over a period of 10 months from December 2017 onwards.