 Hello and welcome to NewsClick. Today, we are going to discuss the appointment of the director in the Research and Analysis Wing, Parujay. You have been following these set of issues, shall we say, the administrative issues that have happened in the last phase of the bonding government. This is the first, shall we say, important appointment which has been done, apart from the IB chief also being appointed. But Mr. Samant Goyal, who has been appointed as head of law, has had or had issues, which was raised last time in a repetition filed by the DIG in CBI on the Asthana issue, where there was cases, counter cases involving the CBI chief and his assistant Mr. Asthana. He was a special director. Now, do you see that there is, there are sort of question mark about Mr. Samant Goyal's role earlier, because he was also earlier in, he was in wrong. He was in fact special secretary. And now he is the head. So, do you see that his role earlier in what Mr. Sinha had raised was the DIG CBI at that point of time, that there are some question marks raised about his role? Yes. If you go along by the affidavit that was placed on the 20th of November, 2018 by the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Mr. Manish Sinha. But let's take first look at the appointment. Mr. Samant Goyal, who is now the head of the research and analysis wing, which is the government of India's external intelligence agency, and it comes under the cabinet secretariat. He is an IPS officer and he belongs to the Punjab cadre. He joined the Indian Police Service in 1984. And he's been in the past posted outside India in Dubai in London. He replaces Mr. Anil Dhamtsana. Now, Mr. Goyal is said to be close to Rakesh Asthana and we know that Mr. Asthana had this running public feud with the former director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, Mr. Alok Verma. And both of them were removed from their position in the infamous so-called midnight coup on the night of the 23rd and 24th of October, 2017. So, Verma's petition finally did not bear fruit because he finally did have to retire by a certain date. So, he retired. Yeah, that is another story. It gets a little complicated. But the fact is, among the people who were transferred with him that fateful night was the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Manish Kumar Sinha. He was removed from Delhi to Bhopal and he was the man who was directly investigating allegations against Mr. Verma's then number two, Rakesh Asthana. Now, what has happened is, and this affidavit which was placed in the Supreme Court, and I remember the judges were very upset that it entered the public domain. But once you put out an affidavit and it's in court, then it's not surprising that the contents of that petition entered the public domain. That particular petition had made some very, very serious allegations, not only against Mr. Asthana, but willy-nilly against the new raw chief, Mr. Samand Goyal. Essentially, what had happened, there was a so-called middleman called Manoj Prasad who had been arrested. He and his brother, Somesh Prasad, are both sons of one Dineshwar Prasad who was earlier Joint Director in the Research and Analysis Wing and said to be very close to the National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval. So, when Manoj Prasad was arrested, question, he was very, very surprised that despite his so-called connections, he had been arrested. Now, what was essentially happening? The CBI at that point of time, or let me put it a section of the CBI at that point of time, were investigating allegations against. That had been raised by an against Manoj Prasad, by another Hyderabad-based business person called Satish Babu Sanna. And these essentially relate to alleged payoffs and bribes in two cases. One was the Mohen Kureshi, the meat exporter's case, alleged money laundering, hawala operations, etc. And the other was the cases against the Sandeshara brothers who are in charge of sterling, sterling market, who are currently absconders. And apparently some properties have been seized of theirs today, some reports to that effect. So, essentially what that affidavit by Manish Kumar Sinha has alleged is that the present raw chief, Mr. Samand Goyal, was allegedly involved in trying to protect, not only Mr. Asthana, but some of these individuals against whom there are allegations. And nothing has been proved in courts of law, so we don't know. But all I know is these allegations entered the public domain when this affidavit was put in the court. And in the first information report against Manoj Prasad, Mr. Samand Goyal's name figures in it. Now, there were a whole lot of other people mentioned in it, including a former minister, a former law secretary, a whole lot of people and they subsequently denied all of this. Now, we haven't had any formal denial from Mr. Samand Goyal, but I presume he would also say that the allegations that have been leveled by Mr. Manish Sinha are unfounded or without any basis. And I must say something else, Mr. the DIG of Police Manish Sinha also acquired, I suppose, a certain amount of notoriety when he went and described the CBI in rather colorful terms as well as the enforcement directorate. I mean, he was actually saying that the government needed to act very, very quickly and to be on the safe side, I must not miscode anybody. So, his affidavit alleged that the CBI, yes, exact quotes, page 36, there is a pressing need to fix a timeline for investigation of such cases. This is the Mohin Kureshi case. So, that premier investigating agencies, such as the Central Bureau of Investigation, doesn't become the center for bogus investigation and the enforcement directorate doesn't become the extortion directorate. Very hard words. Very, very hard words. But again, it's an opinion, so it is not backed up by any further evidence that came to the court. And it seems that now with Mr. Alok Verma being retired, I do not know what is the status of Mr. Astana's being. He's with the bureau that looks into aviation security from where. So, he's also been taken out of the CBI. So, we do not know where these investigations or these issues will go. At the moment, all we can say is, with the Samad Gowel is now going to head raw. And it has this petition, or shall we say, the allegations that were made by different people, particularly in this petition, have not led to any, shall we say. And then we do not know the veracity of Mr. Manoj Prasad's alleged claims that Mr. Gowel is very, very powerful and that he can allegedly finish off and kick out people. Now, again, all of these are allegations. But the fact is, I think it's proximity to not just Mr. Astana, but Mr. Ajit Doval is probably cannot be denied. I mean, it's obvious that Mr. Ajit Doval remains a very, very powerful individual as the national security advisor. And clearly, Mr. Gowel also has his, what should I say, is... Perceive to be close to him? Yes, yes. And again, the raw chief needs to have a good working relationship, we could argue with the NSA anyway. But nevertheless, the important part of it is a lot of these issues which came out in the CBI case, where the two top people fought with each other really were never put to bed, but has been sort of either sought to be forgotten or have lapsed with time. And this seems to be Mr. Sinha's petition. And who knows what the future of these cases and these investigations, where they will eventually lead us to. And the institutions as well. Thank you, Parujaya, for being with us, explaining to us what is the background and where these cases at the moment are. And also, having a look at some of these appointments. This is all the time we have with NewsClick today. Do keep watching NewsClick and our programs.