CBI’s AK Bassi who probed Rakesh Asthana approaches Supreme Court

New Delhi: Ajay Kumar Bassi on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court challenging his transfer to the Andamans in the reshuffle, in the wake of the government sending Alok Verma and Rakesh Asthana on compulsory leave.

Bassi had probed special director Asthana under the orders of CBI director Verma. Both Verma and Asthana were asked to go on leave amid an acrimonious fight between the two. M Nageswara Rao was then made the CBI director. Verma and Asthana have already moved court.

Both have accused each other of corruption and sought court protection for themselves.


Verma was the first to move the court. A separate petition was also f i l e d by Arun Shourie, Yashwant Sinha and Prashant Bhushan to insulate the CBI from political interference of any kind and also challenging the DoPT decision to shunt out Verma. Both these petitions are being heard together.

Asthana’s plea is yet to be heard. A key whistleblower in the case, Satish Babu Sana, had also moved the Supreme Court seeking court protection. His case was argued by senior advocate Raju Ramachandran. The bench led by CJI Ranjan Gogoi ordered that he be provided adequate protection to secure his life. The court, however, refused to stay the summons issued to him in the case.

Satish Babu Sana lives in Hyderabad. He is accused of being the conduit between Asthana and meat exporter Moin Qureshi, who is being probed by the agency.

Justice Gogoi was sitting alongside justices UU Lalit and KM Joseph on Tuesday. Bassi claimed his transfer was mala fide, amounted to an interference in the fair and impartial investigation of pending cases and intended to penalise and victimise an “honest” officer.