NSA Ajit Doval interfered in probe against Asthana: CBI officer tells Supreme Court

CBI joint director Manish Prasad Sinha on Monday submitted a petition before the Supreme Court alleging that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had intervened in a CBI probe against Rakesh Asthana.

Mr. Sinha, who headed the Anti-Corruption Unit III that was probing the Rakesh Asthana case plea, was transferred to Nagpur in October along with few other officers. He claimed that his transfer to Nagpur was “arbitrary, motivated and malafide, and was made solely with the purpose and intent to victimise the officer as the investigation revealed cogent evidence against certain powerful persons”, reports The Quint.

In the petition, Sinha made a series of allegations among which were that two middlemen, who were named by main complainant Sana Sathish Babu, involved in the Asthana case, were close to Doval.

Sinha revealed that during the process of conducting the investigation his team had obstructed one middleman Manoj Prasad, as he had been named by the main complainant Sana Satish Babu in his FIR.

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Prasad during the interrogation brought up the names of Doval and Samant Kumar Goel, Special Director of India’s external intelligence agency (R&AW). Sinha claimed that in the petition Prasad during the interrogation boasted that he had “top contacts” which he could help him get out of the situation.

“As per Manoj Prasad, Shri Dineshwar Prasad, father of Manoj and Somesh, retired as Joint Secretary, RAW and has a close acquaintance with the present National Security Advisor Ajit K Doval (“NSA”). This was one of the first things Manoj claimed on being brought to CBI HQ and expressed complete surprise and anger as to how CBI could pick him up, despite his close links with the NSA Doval,” said Sinha.

“He started bragging and claimed that his brother Shri Somesh is very close to an officer at Dubai (name withheld) and to Samant Goel, presently Special Secretary, R&AW and he can get us “finished off” / “kicked out. Manoj taunted us that you people have no standing whatsoever and therefore should “stay in limits” and let him free. He claimed that recently his brother Somesh and Samant Goel helped the NSA Ajit Doval on an important personal matter.”

Sinha also informed that they had come across a conversation by Goel, where the R&AW officer was heard saying that “the PMO has managed the CBI issue” incidentally on the same night the whole CBI team investigating against Asthana was removed.

The petition also claimed that while the CBI team was conducting a raid at the residence of Devinder Kumar, another CBI officer named in the bribery case against Rakesh Asthana, Doval had called CBI director Alok Verma to stop the search.

While the search was on, a phone call was received from Director CBI instructing to stop the search. At that time, the applicant herein was sitting in the BS& FC office and asked the Director, to which the Director replied that this instruction has come from NSA Shri Doval,” read a section in the plea.

In the end, Sinha requested the apex court to form a social investigation team (SIT) under its supervision to continue a probe against Asthana and also to protect “whistleblowers” (officers) like himself.