After Verma, Rakesh Asthana and three more officers 'axed' from CBI
New Delhi, Jan 17: The Centre Thursday curtailed the tenures of Special Director Rakesh Asthana and three more senior officers in the CBI with immediate effect, days after the agency's chief Alok Verma was shunted out by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led panel.
Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Asthana, who had an unprecedented feud with his boss Verma, was sent on forced leave by the government in October last year.
The tenures of Asthana, Joint Director Arun Kumar Sharma, Deputy Inspector General Manish Kumar Sinha and Superintendent of Police Jayant J Naiknavare have been curtailed, the Personnel Ministry said in an order.
Verma and Asthana had levelled allegations of corruption against each other. They were sent on forced leave by the government.
Amidst the feud between the two, the CBI registered a corruption case against Asthana when Verma was the agency's chief.
Meanwhile, the government appointed M Nageswara Rao as the interim CBI chief.
Rao had then transferred Sinha, who was probing the FIR against Asthana, to Nagpur from the agency's Delhi headquarters.
His transfer was, however, reversed by Verma who was again in January given the charge of the CBI Director following a decision by the Supreme Court.
Verma was shunted out as the CBI chief by the Modi-led high-powered committee that comprised Supreme Court judge A K Sikri and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge as the members.
Verma was then appointed as the Director General of Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guards. He, however, refused to take up the new post, saying he had already superannuated from the Indian Police Service after completing 60 years of age on July 31, 2017.
Verma took over as the CBI chief for a fixed two-year term on February 1, 2017.
The tenure of Sinha, whose name had also come up in the CBI controversy involving its two top officers, was also curtailed.
Sinha, in a petition filed before Supreme Court against his transfer, dragged the names of National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval, Union Minister Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary and Central Vigilance Commissioner K V Chowdary over alleged attempts to interfere in the probe against Asthana.
Sharma, who is considered close to Verma, was also involved in the bitter quarrel between Verma and the sacked CBI chief.
Asthana and Sharma are Gujarat-cadre IPS officers. Whereas, Sinha is a 2000-batch IPS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre and Naiknavare belongs to 2004-batch Maharashtra cadre.
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
