Had the Delhi HC not intervened, Rakesh Asthana would have been arrested by CBI

New Delhi, Oct 29: Had it not been for the intervention of the Delhi High Court, the CBI vs CBI war would have taken an entirely different shape. The CBI under the directions of its Director, Alok Verma had set the stage to arrest special director Rakesh Asthana.

Asthana, it may be recalled had moved the Delhi High Court stating that the CBI was moving fast against him. The court in its order restrained the CBI from taking any coercive action against Asthana.

The first signs of a possible arrest came when the CBI arrest deputy superintendent of police (CBI), Devendra Kumar in connection with the Moin Qureshi case. The CBI it may be recalled had registered an FIR against Asthana alleging that two middlemen had allegedly struck a Rs 5 crore deal on his behalf to close the case against Sathish Babu Sana, a Hyderabad based businessman, who is being probed along with Qureshi. However Asthana had previously claimed that Sana had paid Rs 2 crore to get the case closed against him. He also alleged that Verma had tried to stop him from questioning Sana.

Following the registration of a case, the CBI had moved quickly and were planning on arresting Asthana and two others. The two others that the CBI had under its watch were joint director, Sai Manohar and SP, Jagroop Gusinha.

The officials felt that they may be arrested after the CBI searched he residence and office of Kumar before arresting him.