CBI chief removal: Sitaram Yechury alleges cover up by BJP government

Amid internal fight between Verma and CBI's special director Rakesh Asthana, the government on Wednesday appointed M Nageshwar Rao as an interim chief of the probe agency, media reports said.

Yechury tweeted, "The illegal removal of CBI Chief by Modi government to protect their own handpicked officer, against whom serious charges of corruption are being investigated, points to attempts at a serious cover-up to protect his direct links to the BJP's top political leadership."

"To ensure that the CBI is not a “caged parrot”, Supreme Court had granted protection to the Chief from govt’s whims and fancies by giving him a two-year tenure. What is Modi govt trying to hide by its panic move? #BJPCorruption"

Rakesh Astana, who moved the Delhi High court against the First Information Report (FIR) report lodged against him over the bribery case by his own organisation, bringing to fore an infighting within India's premier federal investigation agency, will not be arrested till Monday.

Asthana, who is engaged in a turf war against now-on-leave Verma, had sought a direction from the high court that no coercive action be taken against him in the case.

The CBI on Monday arrested its Deputy Superintendent of Police, Devender Kumar, in connection with a bribery case that laid bare the probe agency's internal conflict.

The CBI said Kumar was arrested on charges of falsification of records in an ongoing investigation and said “the role of other officers of SIT (special investigation team) CBI, then supervising the Moin Qureshi case” was also being probed, reported Hindustan Times.

Media reports said the dispute between CBI chief Alok Verma and his number two Rakesh Asthana "has escalated with the agency filing a bribery case against the latter."

Asthana has in a written statement to the government said a "false FIR (First Information Report)" has been lodged against him", NDTV earlier reported.

Asthana has been named by Satish Sana, a Hyderabad businessman, who was being investigated in a case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi, arrested in a money laundering case, the report said.

Sana claimed he had to cough up a bribe of Rs. two crores to Rakesh Asthana over a period of over 10-months so that he is not named in the CBI case against Moin Qureshi.

However, Asthana rubbished the charges saying it was hurled against him owing to a conspiracy between the accuser and some CBI and Enforcement Directorate officers.