CBI vs CBI: Manish Kumar Sinha moves SC against transfer; officer was part of team probing Rakesh Asthana case

New Delhi: A CBI officer, who was probing the FIR lodged against Special Director Rakesh Asthana, on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking quashing of his transfer to Nagpur in Maharashtra. Manish Kumar Sinha, an IPS officer who was part of the investigation team probing Asthana’s role in an alleged corruption case, mentioned his plea before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi for urgent hearing on Tuesday. The bench also comprising Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph is scheduled to hear on Tuesday the plea of CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma challenging the government’s decision of divesting him of duties and sending him on leave. Sinha said that his plea also be heard along with Verma on Tuesday. He has alleged that he was transferred to Nagpur and as a result has been taken out from the probe team investigating the FIR against Asthana. [caption id=“attachment_5575451” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Rakesh Asthana. PTI[/caption] On Sunday, Deputy SP Ashwini Kumar Gupta also moved the Supreme Court challenging his repatriation to the Intelligence Bureau (IB) , terming it “unjustified” and “malafide”. Gupta alleged that he was repatriated to his parent Intelligence Bureau (IB) cadre as he was investigating various corruption charges against CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana, who has been divested of his duties and sent on leave along with CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma. Another officer, AK Bassi, on 30 October had filed a petition against his transfer to Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar islands. Asthana has also been divested of his duties and sent on leave by the central government following his ongoing feud with the CBI Director. The CBI had booked Asthana on allegations of receiving a bribe from an accused probed by him in a case linked to meat exporter Moin Qureshi. With inputs from PTI