CBI's Internal War: HC orders to status quo on proceedings against Rakesh Asthana
New Delhi, Oct 23: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the CBI to maintain status quo on the criminal proceedings initiated against its special director Rakesh Asthana, who has challenged the FIR lodged against him on bribery allegations.
Although the CBI cannot arrest Asthana till October 29, the next date of hearing, the high court clarified that there is no stay on the probe considering the nature and gravity of the case.
Besides Asthana, the agency's Deputy Superintendent of Police Devender Kumar, who was arrested by the CBI on Monday, has also filed a separate petition seeking quashing of the FIR.
Justice Najmi Waziri issued notices and sought responses of the probe agency and its Director Alok Kumar Verma as also Joint Director A K Sharma on both the petitions.
The notice has also been issued to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which has jurisdiction the CBI and its permission is required for investigations against bureaucrats.
The order asking the agency to maintain the status quo, till October 29, has been issued on the plea of Asthana only.
The high court, which heard the matter for 20 minutes, asked both Asthana and Kumar to preserve the records which are in their custody, including mobile phones.
The court listed the matter for October 29 after CBI's counsel K Raghavacharyulu sought time to bring on record various sections under which the FIR was lodged.
During the hearing, CBI said charges against Asthana are serious and the agency was investigating the matter and is likely to add more offences in the FIR.
Senior advocate Amrendra Sharan and advocate Amit Anand Tiwari, appearing for Asthana, said it is a case of malafide and illegal registration of FIR against the Special CBI Director which is based on the statement of an accused.
He said there was "utmost urgency" and great amount of "sorrow" in the matter.
To this, the judge said this was not the stage to examine the allegation of malafide.
Asthana's counsel said DoPT's sanction is required to proceed against the officers and no permission was sought from the department.
When the court asked whether there was any bar on registration of FIR, Sharan said any investigation done without permission is illegal and barred.
Senior advocate Dayan Krishnan, who appeared for Kumar, also sought quashing of the FIR against the officer.
CBI's counsel said the FIR was registered under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act and the IPC, including criminal conspiracy, and they have added more sections against the accused relating to extortion and forgery.
When CBI counsel remarked that if there is pest in wood, the wood becomes useless, the judge interjected and asked the advocate not to make such statements in court.
The counsel said it was a bribery case and the probe was at a primitive stage.
"In a case of this nature, give us some time, we will put everything on record in a sealed cover," he said, adding that the matter concerned an institution and "we all are concerned with the institution".
The court turned down the plea of Asthana's counsel seeking to stay further proceedings in the matter.
"Nothing will happen. Tomorrow is Maharishi Valmiki's birthday, kuch nahi hoga (nothing will happen)," the judge said and asked the CBI not to "disturb the equilibrium today".
Asthana has also sought direction to call records of the case and other documents and that no coercive action be taken against him by the CBI.
Asthana moved the petition on Tuesday, hours after Kumar approached the high court which agreed to give an urgent hearing.
Both the petitions were mentioned before Chief Justice Rajendra Menon, who allocated the matter for hearing before Justice Waziri.
The CBI had yesterday arrested its DSP, Kumar, in connection with bribery allegations involving the investigative agency's second-in-command, Asthana.
Kumar, earlier the investigating officer in a case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi, was arrested on the allegations of forgery in recording the statement of businessman Sathish Sana, who had alleged to have paid bribe to get relief in the case.
Asthana claimed that CBI chief Verma in collusion with the joint director and other officers registered the against him to achieve the ulterior design without verifying the complaint made by Sana or conducting any enquiry.
"In the background of the above facts, the present proceedings are not only a shocking portrayal of misuse of the authority which not only undermine the credibility of institution and morale of the force, but also illustrate that the Respondent No. 2 (Verma) is misusing his position to achieve all illegal goals," he alleged in his petition.
"The complainant (Sana) is a person who is proposed to be arrested by the petitioner (Asthana) and his SIT, he is found to be involved in entering into a conspiracy for slowing down the investigation against him. This fact is already reported and being enquired by appropriate authority," he said.
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FIDE Women's World Cup final: Humpy draws with Divya in first game
Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).
