CBI officer investigating corruption case against Rakesh Asthana applies for voluntary retirement
New Delhi, Sep 26: CBI officer Satish Dagar, who was probing the corruption case against the agency's former special director Rakesh Asthana, has applied for voluntary retirement, an official said on Wednesday.
"Satish Dagar, SP, CBI has submitted application for voluntary retirement on personal grounds," CBI's spokesperson said.
The CBI on October 15 last year had registered an FIR against Asthana for allegedly taking a bribe from an accused probed by him in return of ensuring relief and a clean chit in the case.
Asthana has strongly refuted these allegations.
The then CBI director Alok Verma and his deputy Asthana were sent on leave by the Centre through a midnight order on October 23 as both levelled allegations of corruption against each other.
Satish Dagar
Dagar was brought in to probe the case by M Nageswar Rao, a 1986-batch Odisha cadre IPS officer, who took over the duties and functions of CBI director on October 23, 2018 in dramatic midnight change in agency's leadership made by Centre.
The case was earlier being probed by Superintendent of Police A K Bassi who was transferred to Port Blair by Rao.
Dagar is understood to have sent his letter seeking voluntary retirement last month, sources said.
He is scheduled to retire two years from now.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
