Exiled CBI Director Alok Verma.
CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma on Monday filed in the Supreme Court his response on findings of the CVC's preliminary probe report on corruption charges against him in a sealed cover.
Earlier the apex court had asked Verma to file his response as 'quickly as possible' during the day when the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) will file its preliminary report on corruption charges against him. The apex court had also made it clear that it will not adjorn the scheduled hearing on Tuesday.
The bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi was informed by lawyer Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing Verma that he had not been able to file his response with its registry. The bench was hearing Verma's plea challenging the government's decision to divest him of duties and sending him on leave.
"We are not shifting the date. You file as quicly as possible. We will have to read the response", the bench said.
To this, the lawyer said the response will be filed during the day itself.
Earlier the apex court had said that the CVC has made some "very uncomplimentary" findings in its probe on corruption allegations against Verma and wanted further investigations into some of the charges which required more time, adding there were also some "very complimentary" conclusions
The apex court, on November 16, had asked Verma to file his response in sealed cover to the preliminary probe report of the Central Vigilance Commission on corruption charges against the CBI Director by Monday.
Earlier in the day, Manish Kumar Sinha, an IPS officer who was part of the investigation team probing Asthana's role in an alleged corruption case, moved the Supreme Court seeking quashing of his transfer to Nagpur in Maharashtra.
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Officer Sinha has alleged that he was transferred to Nagpur and as a result has been taken out from the probe team investigating the FIR against Asthana.
Both Asthana and Verma have been divested of duties and sent on leave by Centre.
The CBI had on October 15 registered the FIR against Asthana for allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs 2 crore from Hyderabad-based businessman Sana Sathish Babu which was given through two middlemen Manoj Prasad and Somesh Prasad to sabotage the probe against meat exporter Moin Qureshi.
On August 24, Asthana, in his complaint to the Cabinet Secretary, had levelled allegations against Verma that he got a bribe of Rs two crore from Sana to help him get some relief from questioning in the matter.
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Earlier, the apex court issued notices to the Centre, CBI, CVC, special CBI director Rakesh Asthana, Verma and Rao asking them to respond to it by November 12.
The CVC had on November 12 filed in the apex court its preliminary enquiry report.
The CVC probe against Verma was supervised by former Supreme Court judge A K Patnaik and the probe was completed on November 10.
On October 26, the top court had appointed Justice Patnaik to supervise the ongoing inquiry of CVC against Verma.
On November 4, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge had moved the top court contending that divesting Verma of his statutory powers and functions is "completely illegal and arbitrary".
In an interlocutory application filed in the pending petition, Kharge, who is also a member of the three-member selection committee which appoints the CBI director, said that "as a concerned stakeholder he brings to the attention of the court the brazen and illegal actions" of the political executive in interfering with the independent functioning of the CBI director.
