NEW DELHI: A day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booked its second-in-command Rakesh Asthana, Congress president Rahul Gandhi heaped on fresh allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Taking to Twitter, Gandhi claimed that PM Modi has turned CBI into a weapon of political vendetta. He further pointed at Ashthana's alleged connection to Godhra SIT.
“The PM’s blue-eyed boy, Gujarat cadre officer, of Godra SIT fame, infiltrated as No. 2 into the CBI, has now been caught taking bribes. Under this PM, the CBI is a weapon of political vendetta. An institution in terminal decline that’s at war with itself,” wrote the Congress chief.
In an unprecedented move, the CBI booked Asthana for allegedly receiving bribes from middlemen to give relief to a businessman being probed by him in a case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi, officials said Sunday.
The CBI action comes two months after Asthana, the second in command in the CBI, wrote to Cabinet Secretary on August 24 alleging that the businessman had paid CBI Director Alok Verma Rs 2 crore to get relief in the case. The matter was referred to the Central Vigilance Commission which is looking into the allegations.
The CBI is now defending Director Verma, terming the charges as "false and malicious".
In his letters to the Cabinet Secretary and Central Vigilance Commission, Asthana had written about 10 cases of alleged corruption and irregularities against Alok Verma, levelling serious corruption charges in some of them.
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