A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on Wednesday said Verma's plea would be taken up on October 26 after his counsel pressed for an urgent hearing on the midnight order issued against the central probe agency's chief following an escalation in rift between the top officials at the bureau over bribery charges.
Gopal Sankaranarayanan, lawyer appearing for Verma, told the SC that the central government asked Verma and special director Rakesh Asthana to go on leave, compromising the investigation into many sensitive cases.
Verma has two more months to go before his tenure ends and the government cannot formally remove him, his counsel contended.
Earlier, the government appointed M Nageshwar Rao as interim chief of the CBI "with immediate effect" after the internal fight between Verma and Asthana.
Both Verma and Asthana were sent on leave. The Prime Minister-led appointments committee in an order on Tuesday night gave the charge of director to Joint Director M Nageshwara Rao with immediate effect, a government order said.
Both CBI director Alok Verma and special director Rakesh Asthana have been "divested of all powers", sources said, calling it the first such case in the history of the agency.
Amid the CBI infighting, the opposition attacked the Narendra Modi-led BJP government over the "removal" of CBI director Alok Verma.
"PM Modi seeks to achieve surreptitiously and clandestinely what he can't do directly to sack the CBI director. Habitual and perpetual misuse of CBI by Modi government and BJP to tamper fair investigation of serious criminal cases is the reason for this unfathomable mess," Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said in a series of tweets.
Surjewala questioned whether the CBI director was "sacked" for his keenness to probe the layers of "corruption in Rafale Scam".
According to top government officials, the whole action pertaining to removing Verma and Asthana has been taken after the Chief Vigilance Commission (CVC), which has got complaints of corruption against Verma, felt that as long as these two stay in the agency, there can't be a fair probe on charges against them.
The government's action comes a day after high-voltage drama involving director Alok Verma and special director Rakesh Asthana in the Delhi high court.
(With agency inputs)
from Times of India https://ift.tt/2EH63Hx
