CBI vs CBI: Oppn leader Mallikarjun Kharge writes to PM Modi over Alok Verma’s removal

“First, there are no visible grounds to transfer the Director. The only plausible explanation for this desperate and hasty move is an attempt to scuttle the ongoing investigations into the Special Director’s cases and other cases that might cause significant embarrassment to your government,” the letter read.

“Second, that no one — neither you nor the CVC — enjoy the requisite authority to interfere with the Terms of Service vested in the Director,” the letter added.

The letter to Modi concluded with the Congress leader terming the removal of the CBI director as “illegal, mala fide” that “points to a sinister agenda to scuttle important investigations including into the Rafale deal. It seems less like a ‘clean-up’ as your cabinet colleagues are nervously asserting and strikingly more like a ‘cover-up’.”

While addressing the media in the national capital, Kharge, in an indirect reference to Modi, accused the ‘supreme leader’ of having ‘sleepless nights’. “The 2:00 am removal of the CBI No. 1, the round the clock snooping of the same person, and the despotic use of agencies to subvert the rule of law to desperately hide his Govt’s massive corruption in the Rafale Scam is revealing to the core. Shri Narendra Modi and his partner in crime, Shri Amit Shah, are infamous for their ‘Gujarat Model’ of Snoop-Gate and it comes as no surprise, that they are using the Intelligence Bureau to snoop an officer who was about to unravel the murky dealings in the Rafale Scam. ‘Big Brother Syndrome’ is the prime modus operandi by a Government who has utterly lost the plot,” the Congress leader said.

Kharge also raked up the snooping on Verma by alleged Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials earlier in the day in the national capital. “This is nothing but blatant, brazen and beleaguered use of agencies,” he said.

“It also speaks volumes how the Intelligence Bureau is being interfered and misused for a cheap political end. It is nothing but a despotic, mala fide and dictatorial attempt to intrude into the daily workings of premier agencies like IB, CBI and CVC. This is a dark period for Democracy in India and the Congress party with full responsibility wants to underscore this murkiness,” he added.

The Congress leader concluded his press meet by asking “what was the tearing hurry to remove him (Verma) without the approval of the Selection Committee”. “Why was an interim chief appointed at 2:00AM? Does it not tantamount to complete trashing and slithering of Constitutional norms, law and all semblance of political morality and accountability?” he asked.

On Wednesday while explaining its stand, the government had said that such a step was taken due to the “extraordinary” and “unprecedented” circumstances, and to ensure “fairness and equality”. Speaking to reporters, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had described the decision as an “interim measure” to ensure that those facing allegations were not investigating their own cases. He had said that in this “unique” and “unfortunate” situation, the “requirements of fairness and fair play have to be there”.

The Opposition parties are saying that “we know what the agency was going to do next”, Jaitley said. “If …these Opposition parties have access to what is going on in the mind of an individual in the CBI”, then that “itself demolishes the integrity of the persons whom they are trying to support”, he had said.