M Nageswara Rao, the interim chief of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), misused his power and ordered a closure report on November 12, Monday in corruption cases related to chartered accountant Sanjay Bhandari, despite the Supreme Court barring him from taking any major policy decision.
On June 7 DCBI Verma issued directions to reopen d case related to Sanjay Bhandari & few IT Dept officials over corruption allegations but interim DCBI Nageshwar Rao overruled t & ordered to file closure report on Nov 12
All this wen SC ordered Rao not to take any major decision! pic.twitter.com/ehHYnhHaoZ— Arvind Gunasekar (@arvindgunasekar) November 26, 2018
According to an NDTV report, even in March, Rao had faced scrutiny for trying to close this particular case. However, CBI Director Alok Verma had reopened the inquiry.
Sanjay Bhandari and the corrupt nexus of bureaucrats
In January 2015, while carrying out a raid on joint commissioner, Income Tax, Sallong Yaden for bribery, the CBI had received information which indicated that Bhandari was allegedly working with many Income Tax officials to help his clients fudge tax details.
After registering a new case, the CBI had raided several locations related to Bhandari across the country. The investigating agency alleges that Bhandar, along with his sons Shreyas and Divyang, paid bribes to officials in return for favourable Income Tax orders, the NDTV report added.
The CBI named these officials in the case: Principal Commissioner of Income Tax SK Mittal, Income Additional Commissioner (Bengaluru) TN Prakash, Deputy Commissioners Chennai, RV Haroon Prasad and S Murali Mohan, Commissioner Chennai Vijayalakshmi, Additional Commissioner Mumbai S Pandian, Commissioner Mumbai G Lakshmi Baraprasad, Additional Director General Ghaziabad Vikram Gaur and Additional Director investigation Mumbai, Rajendra Kumar. According to NDTV, CBI sources claimed that I-T officials allegedly stayed in five-star hotels, used luxury cars and even availed air travel— all the expenses were borne by Bhandari and his sons.
Rao also violated SC’s Order by changing IO in Moin Qureshi case
This is not the first instance when the CBI director-in charge has violated the apex court’s order. Earlier The Indian Express had reported that under Rao, the CBI changed the Investigating Officer (IO) probing the case involving businessman Moin Qureshi. S Kiran, SP in CBI’s Anti-Corruption II unit (AC III) has been replaced by Satish Dagar, who holds the same rank in AC-III to probe Qureshi’s case. The documents of the case were transferred on October 28, Sunday.
Rao was appointed the interim director by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in the midnight coup that divested CBI Director Alok Verma of his powers. While hearing the plea of Verma — who was sent on leave along with special director Rakesh Asthana — the Supreme Court had on October 26 barred IPS officer M Nageswara Rao from taking any policy decision or any major decision. The Supreme Court had directed that interim chief Rao “will only perform the routine tasks that are essential to keep the CBI functional”.
(With PTI inputs)