NEW DELHI: An official letter that CBI director Alok Verma wrote to Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra proved to be the trigger for his midnight removal from the post.
He had reportedly sought the file on the Rafale fighter aircraft deal from the defence secretary just a few days ago, citing complaints in hand on alleged corruption in the purchase from the French firm.
A CBI insider said Verma had already got the complaints examined by a team of officers of his confidence and wanted to examine the file before registering a preliminary enquiry (PE).
Prime Minister Modi reportedly swung into action to axe Verma after he rejected an advice from National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to withdraw the letter to the defence secretary.
Though the government tried to project Verma’s removal from the post as its intervention to end the infight between him and the CBI’s second-in-command special director Rakesh Asthana by divesting both from their duties and sending them on leave, Verma told some of his colleagues that his removal is just not because he got registered an FIR of corruption against Asthana and his fight is now directly with the PM who sacked him.
Indications are that Verma may any time soon nail the lies spread by the government that his removal has nothing to do with the Rafale deal. He plans to release the letter he had written to the defence secretary to seek the Rafale deal details, so as to establish that the Rafale deal was very much on the CBI’s scanner.
How he releases the letter is not certain, maybe by holding a press conference, but sources close to him said he would certainly do so to put Prime Minister Modi directly on the mat before the next Supreme Court hearing on November 12 on his petition to reinstate him
There should be no surprise if Verma also exposes BJP President Amit Shah for putting undue pressure on him to “obey” Asthana since last year when he had opposed the latter’s promotion as the special director, the No 2 in the agency.
Asthana reportedly enjoyed the goodwill of PM Modi and that is how he not only scuttled many appointments made by Verma but even attended official meetings despite Verma’s repeated assertion that he was not authorised.
Meanwhile, Verma’s team of a dozen officers, who were shunted out from their posts or transferred by interim director M Nageswara Rao within hours of the midnight takeover, are hoping to be reinstated in their positions on March 12 when Rao has been asked to give a report on all actions taken by him.
