New Delhi: A Delhi court has posed a set of questions to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a case involving the roles of three of its former directors Ranjit Sinha, AP Singh and Alok Verma in connection with a bribery case registered in February 2017 against millionaire meat exporter Moin Qureshi.
In an FIR, the CBI had alleged that the meat exporter worked as a middleman for “certain public servants” and was helped by Singh, who retired as the probe agency chief in 2012.
According to a report by Hindustan Times, CBI special court judge Sanjeev Aggarwal asked the agency “why is it dragging its feet in a case involving the roles of two of its former directors”, which shows that may be the agency is not very keen to pursue the probe in relation to them.
“It is apparent that in this case, the role of two of its former directors, AP Singh and Ranjit Sinha, is under scanner along with alleged middleman Moin Akhtar Qureshi, which needs frank and honest investigations,” the judge said in a latest order.
Aggarwal said the image of the CBI as a premier investigating agency is worth redoubtable, adding that it has to rise to occasion to probe the allegations against its former bosses. “When any institution or organisation finds itself at a crossroad, it has to take the right path,” the CBI special court judge said.
In its reply, the CBI told the court on September 26 that so far 544 documents had been collected and 63 (including three named as accused) witnesses had been examined. It said that the previous investigating officer Devinder Kumar, deputy superintendent of police, had submitted a proposal to arrest Qureshi, Pradeep Koneru, Aditya Sharma and Sathish Babu Sana. A case was registered against former CBI special director Rakesh Asthana and the proposal could not be processed. The case against Asthana was part of a feud between Alok Verma and the former, which led to the exit of the two top CBI officers from the agency.
The matter has been kept for hearing on October 27.
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