 Hello and welcome to the news click. Today we have with us Poranjaya Guhatakutta, senior analyst and we are going to discuss what has now been commonly known as a CBI versus CBI case. Poranjaya is a very interesting intervention petition by the former DIG who is handling this case as head of AC3 and he has challenged his transfer. This is the application of Manish Kumar Sinha. Now he's been transferred as you were aware of from what he was doing in Delhi to Nagpur. He's also called the CBI as it can become what is it the exact words he has to use. CBI equals Center for Bogus Investigation and Enforcement Director becomes extortion director. It's amazing. This is from the serving office IPS officer who is DIG. That's correct. Okay, so this is not something which the opposition is raising or people like you and me. Okay, let me fill you in a little bit about Manish Kumar Sinha and this is mind you in an affidavit given in the Supreme Court of India. The Supreme Court of India has yet not heard the affidavit on its merits but the affidavit is in the public domain. He not only belongs to the elite Indian police service. He's of the rank of Deputy Inspector General and he's heading the anti-corruption branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation in Nagpur where he was suddenly transferred in the middle of the night in the VRs of the 24th of October 2018. Now in the headquarters he was also heading the anti-corruption branch and he was handling a number of sensitive cases including the Nirav Modi, Mehul Chowkshi, Punjab National Bank scandal and what is very very interesting is that he has got many medals, police medals, this and that. He was transferred together with Mr. A. K. Basi who is Deputy Superintendent of Police and Superintendent. And he was transferred to another man. Yes and if you know the judge, Chief Justice of India, Mr. Ranjan Gogoe said it's a nice place to stay for a while. I'm sure it's a great place for a holiday and as says Gurum but interestingly he was the man who was directly investigating in the first information report that had been lodged against the now on leave special director of the CBI Rakesh Asthana and together with him there were others including the Deputy Superintendent of Police of the CBI Devendra Kumar. Now it's truly amazing this affidavit you know it runs into 43 pages but the kind of things in it are mind boggling. So let me tell you what is possibly the most sensational part of the whole thing. Now it has been alleged in this particular affidavit that this person called Satish Babu Sana. He is supposed to be running a few companies in Hyderabad. He has supposed to have 400 employees. He's very happy that he has no debt. Notably he is the owner of the Playboy Club of Hyderabad and he as said or according to Mr. Manish Senaibegapattan he said sometime in the first fortnight of June 2018 a few crore rupees was paid to Shri Hari Bhai, Parthi Bhai, Chaudhary. He is Minister of State for Coal and Mines in the Union Government. He happens to be a three-time member of parliament from Banaskatha in Gujarat and reportedly close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Now this is about as close as you can get. I don't know the merits of the allegations but this is all part of the affidavit. This is also that he was beaten up twice in the CBI during interrogation and this continuous summons and continuous bleeding is what it seems made him file the complaint because initially it didn't appear that he was going to resist being extorted as it were. So this is also said by the DIG. According to Mr. Satish Babu Sana, Minister Hari Bhai Chaudhary had intervened with senior officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation through the office of the Ministers of Personnel, Public Revences and Pensions under which the CBI, the Central Bureau of Investigation Director and it had been further alleged that the money was paid through one Whipple in Ahmedabad and according to Mr. Manish Sinha, these facts were disclosed to him by Sana on the 20th of October 2018. Why did it? Because on 24th October, he is abruptly transferred. The famous midnight transfers happened. So I think somewhere along the line one name but there are other names also. Let me give you one more name. According to the affidavit of Mr. Manish Kumar Sinha, discreet inquiries were conducted and one of the sources claimed that in June, in the first fortnight of June, there was a talk between K. Lakshma Reddy. He's a member of the Legislative Assembly of Telangana from Medjal and according at that this money was about one or two crore rupees according to this affidavit. Now, this gentleman, Sri K. Lakshma Reddy, he used to be belonging to the Congress but he switched sides and he's the ruling party. He's with the Telangana Rajta Samiti. He happens to be the Health Minister of Telangana at this particular point of time. He was earlier Energy Minister. So the story is getting murkier and murkier. There's also a CVC connection here. Correct. And according to Mr. Sinha, as per this affidavit, he met the Central Vigilance Commissioner K. V. Choudhary together with one of his perpetually a close relative of his, one Goranthala Ramesh and who's supposed to be the owner of Delhi Public School in Hyderabad and they were supposedly discussing the Mohin Qureshi case and here- This is with the CVC. CVC and Mr. Manish Sinha, he quickly adds here that there was a question of some land being sold, some money going and he said that look I mean there's nothing wrong. I mean he said there's nothing wrong for a CBI officer to meet the Central Vigilance Commissioner but he's saying but he's just putting on record these facts. But for me there's much more to it. Yes, we have Mr. Doble's name also cropping up here. Absolutely correct. Mr. Doble's name figures on two separate episodes in this particular affidavit. The first time is when Manoj Prasad, who is one of these informants, who is one of these business persons based in Dubai, when he was interrogated in the CBI headquarters, he bragged, he bragged that you can't touch me. I'll finish you off. I'll kick you out. These are the words you'll be kicked out. You'll be finished off. Why? Because he was bragging about his close connections with Mr. Samant Goyal, who is a special secretary of the research and analysis wing in the Cabinet Secretary and it's further alleged that he is very close to the National Security Advisor Mr. Iqid Doval, Ajit Doval. Now what is even more amazing? He talks about a personal favor. But then I'm a little fuzzy. I can't figure out. Do you know what he says? He said there were these elections happening. The two separate things were the personal favor and the other is the election to the delegate to the Interpol. Now, interestingly again, we have some very, very interesting characters coming in. One of them is the Joint Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation Policy, Mr. Arun Kumar Sharma. He's again allegedly close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Now he is also handling very, very sensitive cases, including the Mehul Chowk, see the Nirav Modi case. Earlier he had handled the Ishrar Jahan alleged encounter case and that's not all. Now, it has he said that he's apparently diluted that look out notice against Vijay Malia. All these allegations are in the public domain. Now what happens is apparently Mr. Iqish Sharma's trip, who was supposed to go abroad, is suddenly canceled and these elections are supposed to be taking place now, but his trip has been suddenly canceled and the plot gets thicker and it goes on and on and on. This person, Manoj Prasad, he alleges that he met, according to Sana, Manoj Prasad met Nitin Sandeshwara of the Sterling biotech case. Which is where 30,000 crores have been apparently siphoned off. How much money and where? And the owners are abroad. Absolutely. Following the footsteps of Mr. Malia and Mehul Chowk see. And Mr. Lalit Modi and Mr. Jatin Mehta, just to mention a few names. Okay. Now Manoj Prasad apparently from the office, from the CBI headquarters, spoke to his brother, Somesh Prasad. And these are the same people whose father retired as a joint secretary in the research and analysis. And his name, their father-in-law's name, all of them names, figure. And it's truly amazing. Those names have been coming out for some time. Correct. Including Samant Goyal's name, who are again very close to the claim Manoj Prasad and Somesh Prasad are close to Samant. And there is one other place where the National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval's name crops up in this for a second time. This is concerning Devinder Kumar, who is a deputy superintendent of police in the Central Bureau of Investigation. Now, it was alleged that he was somehow trying to fix the whole Mohen Kureshi case. And he's reportedly was part of the team where Mr. Rakesh Asthana, the special director now on leave, was there. And it has been alleged that he made a false statement and had actually been arrested. Now remember, this is a CBI officer. And when he was being searched, he claimed that some of these mobiles that were in his residence belong to his children and his relatives. So whereas there were seven or eight mobiles, only one of them was seized. But most importantly, and this is a very, very damning allegation that Mr. Manish Kumar Sena has made in his affidavit. He said, while Devinder Kumar's premises, his residence was being searched and a phone call was received by the director of the Central Bureau of Investigation. Now that is Mr. Alok Verma. And at that time, he says, he was sitting in the office and asked the director, why are you calling of these raids? To which the director, and this is Mr. Alok Verma, replied that his instruction had come from the National Security Advisor, Sri Ajit Doval. Now this is mind boggling. Let's be, shall we say, chantable on that. There is this report floating in the newspapers. Somesh Prasad, Manoj Prasad were actually working on the behest of NSA and RAW. And they were operatives. They were operatives. Therefore, they had sensitive information. So if we take that, one could argue that this was the reason the NSA was trying to intervene. Though not very clear why the officer in the Mohen Koreshike should be involved at all, because they are certainly not raw operatives and not operating out of Dubai. Now when Mr. Manish Sinha's lawyer presented his this affidavit in the Supreme Court and said there are some shocking allegations, the Chief Justice of India reportedly said, it's not easy to shock us. We are not easily shocked. But I think as a lay person, as a citizen of this country, as a journalist, these allegations are truly shocking. And I cannot remember such episodes where a senior officer of the CBI is making these kind of allegations and including allegations about other senior officers. We have still not gone to all the other people named. He's also talked about the law secretary. Absolutely. He has talked about the cabinet secretariat and he's talked about the PO. That these three also were at least in the loop somewhere. Because one of the statements here is that somebody is telling that we have been in touch with the PO more, it will be sorted out. And that is the night the acts falls on the team investigating what you call the AC3. Now after this team, after the famous sort of sudden midnight transfers in the VRs on the 24th of October 2018, interestingly, on the 8th of November 2018, the Satish Babusana reportedly or allegedly spoke on WhatsApp to the union law secretary, Mr. Suresh Chandra, who happened to be in London at that point of time in the Nirav Modi matter, in the Nirav Modi case. Now according to this affidavit, he conveyed a message from the cabinet secretary, Pradeep Kumar Sinha. And the cabinet secretary is the head of the cabinet secretariat and the raw and the research and analysis wing. India's external agency is part of that. Cabinet secretary is the key bureaucrat for the government. That's right. He is the number one. He is the senior most bureaucrat in the government. Absolutely civil servant. Now and interestingly, a name of another officer comes in as a so-called go-between. Ms. Rekha Rani of the Indian administrative service belonging to the Andhra Pradesh cadre. This is truly amazing, Prabhir. You know, it really is, as you said, shocking. But it is also surprising the ineptness of all of this, because it does appear that if the government does not have egg on its face and if the Supreme Court does not step in to such serious allegations, we are looking at really the subversion of the entire system of governance in the country. This is an armed wing of the government. And the entire, a subversion of a body, which is considered to be the premier investigating agency of the country. The CBI, the Central Bureau of Investigation, if you remember this finance secretary, ex-finance secretary, S.P. Shukla had written a news click that this CBI is not just a department of the government, it's one of the armed wings of the government. Absolutely. So this is, and I think, and I think, and I was speaking this morning to a gentleman who we had interviewed on news click, the former joint director of the CBI. We have to think again what to do. I mean, the CBI is operating under a law called the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act. But we need to seriously think what kind of legal safeguards do we need a new law, the parliament need to have a new law to truly ensure the independence, the autonomy, and the integrity of the CBI. We're not talking of just being cage parrots. We're talking of far beyond that is being used for petty shakedowns and extortions and serious cases being sort of let go. And one thing one can say without any fear of contradiction is this episode is certainly not going to enhance the image of the Narendra Modi government. That, I think, is a statement that does not really require any navigation. That's a no brainer, if you like. In fact, I think even the government will concede that today. Thank you for being with us. This, as we said, this is a shocking revelation if even half of what the DIG formed, he's not a former DIG. He's a serving Deputy Inspector General. Deputy Inspector General of Police has said a serving officer never comes out with this kind of allegations. On record. I don't remember any case that a serving officer made this kind of allegations in an affidavit to the Supreme. Including again some of his own colleagues and senior officers in the government of India, top bureaucrats, and even politicians, including a union minister. Thank you for the joy. We will be closely monitoring what's happening as I guess the rest of the country. And I hope the Supreme Court will also monitor it in the way this needs to be unraveled. This is all the time we have for NewsClick today. Do keep watching NewsClick and we'll be following up these reports.