A Hyderabad based businessman Satish Babu Sana has accused former CBI DSP Rakesh Asthana and Dubai based businessman Manoj Prasad of taking bribes from him.
In a case filed by Sana, he alleged that Prasad had demanded bribes from him to give him a clean chit in the case regarding meat exporter Moin Qureshi.
Manoj was in direct contact with a RAW official who was in turn in contact with Asthana and he too demanded bribes to spare him any CBI action in the same case.
Rakesh Asthana was the chief investigating officer in Sana’s case.
He replaced former CBI director general Devender Kumar who was earlier the investigating officer in Qureshi’s case questioning Sana. He was arrested when Sana accused him of forgery.
Rakesh was arrested by CBI on the same grounds of criminal conspiracy, misconduct and corruption as alleged in the FIR by Babu.
In January, though, a Delhi High Court dismissed the pleas of Asthana, Devender and Manoj and seeked quashing of the FIR against all 3.
The court also expressed displeasure over the CBI’s handling of the bribery case. It ordered the CBI to conduct the investigation properly.
The CBI is the main and sole investing agency of India. It has been blasted several times in the past for tampering with evidence and turning the case in favour of the accused and arresting its own officers.
In May, CBI appealed to the court to extend the investigation of the case by 4 months, which was granted by the court.