Alok Verma, the exiled Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director, in his reply to the Central Vigilance Commission’s (CVC) inquiries, has alleged that Rakesh Asthana, his deputy in the CBI, Sushil Modi, Bihar deputy chief minister and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) colluded together to indict Lalu Prasad Yadav, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RLD) chief in the Indian Railways and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) scam, in 2017.
The Wire reported that Verma denied allegations made by Asthana that he had purposefully diluted the case against Yadav. He added that it was Asthana who, in his (then) capacity as the additional director (AD) of the CB had, “suppressed the fact that a complaint related to the same matter was sent to the CBI in 2013-14 and was closed.”
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Verma also said that the case seemed to be politically motivated with, Asthana being in constant touch with Modi, who, then, was a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from Bihar. He also noted, “A senior official in the PMO was constantly following up on the case.” As such, Verma said, foreseeing a potential law and order breakdown in the state given that the CBI officers were searching Tejaswi Yadav’s house — who, then, was the deputy chief minister — and two other former CMs of the state, he had spoken to the PMO official who was monitoring the case’s progress.
Verma said, “Since the senior official of the PMO was constantly in touch enquiring about the progress of the case, I had expressed these concerns to him.”
Noting that Nitish Kumar was briefed about these searches which were carried out with prior planning, he added, “A decision was taken to inform the chief minister, Bihar and take him to confidence.”
Lastly, Verma also said that he could furnish names of the officials who were involved in this process. He added, “If the commission intends to verify these events, I can disclose to the commission the name of the senior PMO official and ‘other’ persons who were privy to the discussions and probably involved in winning the confidence of the Bihar chief minister.”
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