CBI crisis: SC to decide on director Alok Verma's plea today; last hearing was postponed after Verma's response got leaked

The Supreme Court on Thursday will decide upon the plea of CBI director Alok Verma, whether he should be reinstated as the director of the agency or not.

In the last hearing, the Supreme Court had pulled up the lawyer and the counsels of the Alok Verma, who is Fali. S Nariman and Attorney General were questioned by the Chief Justice as to how the response of Alok Verma got leaked in the media and it was published as an exclusive article in The Wire.

The ousted CBI chief, who had filed an FIR against special director Rakesh Asthana, and had accused him of taking bribe in the Moin Qureshi bribery scandal, and Verma was also planning to arrest the latter, on the complaint of one Satish Sana.

But, even before Alok could proceed, the Department of Personnel and Training sent both the directors of CBI on leave until the investigation is on.

The Supreme Court had ordered an inquiry into the allegations made by Rakesh Asthana against his boss, Alok Verma, by the Central Vigilance Commission and also appointed a retired Supreme Court judge to supervise the inquiry.

Until the, the government had appointed M Nageshwar Rao, a 1986-batch IPS officer of Orissa cadre as the interim chief of the CBI but the Supreme Court had restricted him to take any serious and significant decisions, without the permission from the court.

The NGO Common Cause had filed a petition in the case and it said, “chain of events shows that Verma is being victimised for taking action against Asthana, a Gujarat cadre officer, and also for entertaining complaint against the top functionaries of the present government.”

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