CBI arrests its DSP in Asthana bribery case

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The bickerings at the top in CBI took a new turn on Monday with the agency arresting its DSP Devender Kumar following bribery allegations against CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana, the number two who is at war with the Director Alok Verma.

Kumar's arrest comes a day after the agency registered an FIR against Asthana and several others for allegedly accepting bribes to settle a case of meat exporter Moin Qureshi, who is facing multiple cases of money laundering and corruption. The CBI has alleged that bribes were given at least five times in December 2017 and October 2018.

"Kumar, who has been the investigation officer in the Moin Qureshi case, has been arrested on the allegation of falsification of records," the agency said.

According to the CBI, Kumar had fabricated the statement of Sathish Sana, a witness in the Quershi case, showing he recorded the statement on Septemebr 26, 2018 in Delhi. However, investigation has revealed that Sana was was not in Delhi, he was in Hyderabad on that day and joined the investigation only on October 1, 2018.

"It was found that Kumar had fabricated this statement as an after-thought to corroborate the baseless allegations made by special director Rakesh Asthana against CBI director Alok Kumar Verma to CVC," said the agency, adding it was also probing the role of other officers of the CBI Special Investigation team (SIT) then supervising the Qureshi case.

Asthana, a 1984 batch Indian Police Service officer of Gujarat cadre, is accused of accepting a bribe of Rs 2 crore from a businessman who was under probe in the Qureshi case in order to "wreck" the investigation. The case was being examined by a special investigation team (SIT) headed by Asthana.

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