New Delhi: The Central Vigilance Commissioner KV Chowdary has said it was ‘unanimously’ decided to not recommend IPS officers Rakesh Asthana’s name for promotion but the government ignored the advice and made Asthana special director of CBI.
CVC’s Selection Committee rejected a proposal for the promotion of Central Bureau of Investigation’s additional director Rakesh Asthana for the post of special director.
In a meeting, chaired by Chowdary, Asthana’s name was rejected due to “issues regarding integrity clause”, stating that his name was found in the ‘Diary 2011’ in a recent FIR registered by his own organisation — the CBI.
Chowdary said a panel was set up as per the CVC Act, 2003. “The appointments in CBI, from a special director, are made after a recommendation of the CVC under the CVC Act. A committee is set up, which also includes the director of the CBI. But the CBI is to be only consulted in this regard. We had a meeting with a special agenda, and we made a unanimous recommendation to the government. Views of the consultation are not binding,” said Chowdary.
“The recommendation that we make to the government is advisory in nature and not binding. As per the agenda, a meeting took place on Saturday… Even if there was a dissent note by the CBI director, his views are only taken note of. It is just a consultation,” said the CVC.
On Sunday, a government panel promoted senior Asthana and Gurbachan Singh as special directors of CBI and Intelligence Bureau, respectively.
This was announced by the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions.
On August 30, CBI’s Delhi unit registered a detailed FIR against three senior Income Tax Commissioners for accepting bribes from the Gujarat-based Sterling Biotech and Sandesara Group of Companies.
The FIR says there existed a ‘Diary 2011’ which was found during raids on a company. Sources say the diary contained details of monthly payout to the accused Income Tax Commissioners, and several police officials and politicians in Gujarat and Delhi. Sources indicated that the diary also contained Asthana’s name.
The Selection Committee observed that when an agency is probing the case, people mentioned in the dairy shouldn’t be in the CBI.
In April this year, Asthana joined the CBI as additional director and presided over the probe into some of the high-profile cases, including AgustaWestland chopper scam and Vijay Mallaya’s loan-default.
Asthana carried out field investigation into cases related to the 1995 Purulia arms dropping. As part of his probe, he connected the dots between international and domestic evidence, especially the laptop seized from the possession of British arms dealer Peter Bleach.
Asthana was part of investigations into the fodder-scam corruption cases. The probe led to 99% conviction, including a guilty verdict for Lalu Yadav and several other politicians and bureaucrats.
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