Rahul Gandhi takes jibe at PM Modi over case against CBI special director

Congress president Rahul Gandhi slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, a day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed an FIR against its own Special Director, Rakesh Asthana, for allegedly receiving kickbacks in a case connected to Kanpur-based meat exporter Moin Qureshi.

Gandhi called the CBI a “weapon of political vendetta” wielded by the Modi regime.

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Calling Asthana the “the PM’s blue-eyed boy”, Gandhi said that the CBI has become an institution in terminal decline at war with itself.

“The PM’s blue-eyed boy, Gujarat cadre officer, of Godra SIT fame, infiltrated as No. 2 into the CBI, has now been caught taking bribes,” he said in a tweet.

“Under this PM, the CBI is a weapon of political vendetta. An institution in terminal decline that’s at war with itself,” the 48-year-old Gandhi added.

Asthana has been accused by a man identified as Sathish Babu Sana, resident of Gachibowli, Hyderabad, Telangana, who alleged that the CBI Special Director took money amounting to crores via conduits to drop the summons issued against him in the case related to Qureshi.

Qureshi is facing multiple cases of money laundering and corruption.

Besides naming Asthana in his 15 October complaint, Sana also named CBI DSP Devender Kumar and two others, Manoj Prasad and Somesh Prasad.

All four persons were booked under various charges of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act.

Read More: Explained | The case against CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana

It is interesting to note that before being named in an alleged case of bribery, Asthana had filed a complaint against CBI Director Alok Verma accusing him of interfering in the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) corruption case. The family members of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad Yadav have been named in the IRCTC case.