New Delhi, February 28: A special court on Friday witnessed heated arguments between two investigating officers (IOs) during hearing in a bribery case allegedly involving former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Director Rakesh Asthana. As the officers continued to spar, Special CBI Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal reprimanded both and posted the matter for further hearing on March 7, Hindustan Times reported. CBI vs CBI Battle Explained: Why Alok Kumar Verma and Rakesh Asthana are at Loggerheads? How it All Started.

During the hearing, former investigating officer AK Bassi accused the current IO Satish Dagar of shielding the "big names" in the case. He said that Dangar did not investigate individuals who were named by accused Manoj Prasad. “I have better antecedents than you in the organisation. Don’t level personal allegations. I summoned you six times, why didn’t you appear if you wanted to assist in the investigation?" Dangar shot back. Rakesh Asthana's CBI Tenure Curtailed, Moved to Aviation Security.

"One must ask him (Bassi), he conducted investigation only between October 15 and 23, 2018, but how does he know what is happening in the CBI? How has he infiltrated our investigation?" Dangar added. He also opposed the submission of an additional note by Bassi on his findings. "Why is he submitting new documents when none of this was in his case diary? He cannot submit allegations or documents on the basis of hearsay," he said.

At this point, Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal intervened and said: "You both are in the same agency. You both have to go back there. Don’t wash your dirty linen in public." "If required, I will again call both of you for further clarification, but not together," he added and deferred the hearing. At the last hearing on February 19, the court had pulled up the CBI for not conducting psychological and lie detector tests on Rakesh Asthana.

An FIR was lodged against Asthana in October 2018 for allegedly accepting a bribe to settle a case of meat exporter Moin Qureshi, who is facing multiple cases of money laundering and corruption. Asthana's name surfaced when a Hyderabad-based businessman named Sana Satish alleged that he had paid a bribe of Rs 5 crore to help him get off the hook in the Moin Qureshi case. Later, the investigating officer was changed and Asthana got a clean chit.

Asthana, a 1984 batch Indian Police Service officer of Gujarat cadre, was involved in the probe of some high-profile cases such as the Sabarmati Express fire case in Godhra in 2002. As superintendent of police in the CBI, he also arrested Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in the fodder scam in 1997. His investigation into the fodder scam is regarded as crucial resulting in the conviction of Lalu Prasad.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 28, 2020 12:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).