Alok Verma can look into Rakesh Asthana case files: High Court

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has permitted CBI director Alok Verma and joint director AK Sharma to inspect case files pertaining to an FIR registered against the agency’s special director, Rakesh Asthana.

Justice Najmi Waziri said Verma could visit the office of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on Thursday and Sharma the following day to inspect the files. This after Verma’s counsel said there were allegations of mala fide levelled by Asthana in a petition against the director and that his client needed to revisit the files and case diaries to refresh his memory before filing a reply to that.

While the CBI under Verma had filed the FIR against Asthana for allegedly taking a bribe, the special director approached the CVC accusing the director of committing irregularities. The Supreme Court in October ordered the CVC to probe the charges against Verma in two weeks. The commission has since submitted its report to the top court, where the hearing is slated for Thursday.


Asthana moved the high court seeking quashing of the October 15 FIR against him, claiming that Verma and Sharma had implicated him in a false case.

Satish Dagar, the new investigating officer of the Moin Qureshi case which is linked to the bribery allegations against Asthana, has been directed to be at the CVC office at the time of perusal of files by Verma and Sharma.

Sharma filed his counter to Asthana’s petition in the HC on Wednesday. He alleged that Asthana was the “main beneficiary of the extortion” seeking bribe and “the kingpin of the entire offences”.

Demanding that Asthana’s petition be dismissed, he said, “There are incriminating intercepted/WhatsApp conversation” between the coaccused and their associates wherein the name of Asthana was “regularly cropping up, which imputes criminality on his part”.