Senior CBI officer moves Supreme Court
Ashwini Kumar Gupta, a senior Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officer moved the Supreme Court on Saturday and alleged his repatriation to the Intelligence Bureau (IB) was done with malafide intention. He told the apex court he was repatriated to his parent organisation IB on the ground that the order of his extension has not been received by the CBI.
"No Objection Certificate" from the IB regarding the extension of tenure of Gupta had already been received by the CBI in June before expiry of the deputation period and was forwarded to the Department of Personnel and Training for their approval, he said.
"The repatriation order dated October 24 is vitiated by mala fide and interference in the fair and impartial investigation of the case and intended to penalise and victimise an officer for his honesty and integrity," Gupta said in his plea.
The Supreme Court had permitted Gupta to intervene in the matter related to CBI Director Alok Verma challenging Centre's decision divesting him of his charge as chief of the investigation agency.
CBI chief Verma was divested of his charge by the government on October 24 and Joint Director M Nageshwar Rao was appointed the interim Director.
The decision was taken by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) past midnight, as war between CBI chief Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana escalated over bribery allegations hurled at each other.
At present, in CBI, a number of officers are on deputation from different police organisation who are continuing beyond their deputation tenure, Gupta told the court.
He alleged that singling him out is due to the fact that he was assisting AK Bassi which led to unearthing of crucial finding, implicating Rakesh Asthana in Sterling Biotech case registered on August 30, 2017.
Gupta also told the court that Bassi was victimised and unjustly penalised by transferring him to Port Blair, Andaman for discharging his duties conscientiously.
