CBI war gets murkier as host of top officials including NSA are dragged into the mess

New Delhi, Nov 20: The CBI war got murkier, with a fresh petition being filed in the Supreme Court. On Monday, a senior CBI officer petitioned the SC challenging his transfer, while also levelling a series of allegations, which included interference by top officials.

Manish Kumar Sinha, DIG (Head of Branch), CBI Anti Corruption Branch, Nagpur, narrated alleged instances in which National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval seems to have stalled his team's investigation into the FIR against CBI Special Director (on leave), Rakesh Asthana.

The petition came at a time, when the Supreme Court is set to hear the plea by CBI Director, Alok Verma in which he challenged the decision of the government to send him on leave.

Sinha in his plea said that Verma had briefed Doval on October 17 about the FIR against Asthana. The NSA on the same night informed Asthana and the later made a request to Doval that he should not be arrested. He said that the his team had wanted the cell phones of the officials involved in the FIR as they could contain crucial evidence. However the Director did not give immediate permission and reverted that the NSA had not permitted the same.

Further the application noted how Manoj Prasad an accused in the Asthana case had bragged about his proximity with the NSA, when he was picked up by the CBI, while on his way back from Dubai.

He further detailed how the Law Secretary, Suresh Chandra got in touch with Satish Babu Sana, the man who lodged the complaint of bribery against Asthana. It further said that Prrasad had threatened that his brother Somesh was very close to Samant Goel, who is currently a Special Secretary with the Research and Analysis Wing.