Alok Verma Helped Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi Flee Country? CVC Begins Probe To Find Out

New Delhi, January 12: Alok Verma had stepped down from the Director’s post of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) following a rift with the agency and the Union government; however his troubles are not over for him as of yet. In a latest, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has initiated an inquiry against Verma over six more allegations, which ranges from discrepancies in Nirav Modi’s case to Vijay Mallya’s lookout circulars.

Informing about the probe on Verma, CVC in its reports submitted to the Union government has stated that the senior officer needed to be questioned related with ten allegations levelled by his former number two in the CBI – Special Director Rakesh Asthana. Among the two major allegations by Asthana relates with discrepancies in dealing with the cases pertaining to Mallya and Nirav Modi. Alok Verma Refuses to Take Charge as DG Fire Services After His Ouster From CBI, Resigns.

Earlier on December 26, the CVC asked the CBI to provide all documents related to the cases, so that they could reach to a logical conclusion, but the agency (CBI) produced all documents related with Mallya’s case on Wednesday. Other files are still pending and the fraudsters - Mallya and Nirav Modi - are currently absconding.

Alleging that Verma tried to ‘cover-up’ certain internal emails of Nirav Modi case in the PNB scam, Asthana had levelled corruption charges against him. It is to be known that the CBI in June 2018, had locked the room of then joint director Rajiv Singh – supervising the Nirav Modi probe – and had called Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) of IT Ministry to retrieve data, informed a CVC source.

Another severe allegation levelled against Verma is related with the dilution of Vijay Mallya’s LoC, issued in October, 2015. Booked in Rs 900 crore IDBI Bank Fraud, Mallya had been ordered extradition by a UK court recently. According to Asthana’s allegations, the CBI joint director A K Sharma was seen close to Verma after the LoC was issued against Mallya and wrote to immigration authorities seeking dilution to ‘inform only’ instead of ‘detain’, which helped Mallya free the country.

Among other accusations levelled against Verma include – diluting LoC against Rs 600 crore IDBI Bank loan fraud accused Shivshanakaran and three allegations levelled by additional SP Sudhanshu Khare, posted in CBI’s Lucknow branch. Khare had alleged that Verma refused to take up the probe into the suicide of Uttar Pradesh ATS additional SP Rajesh Saini, protected accused persons from prosecution in a case related to the National Rural Health Mission scam and shielded the accused persons – Ranjit Singh and Abhishek Singh – in a bank fraud with SBI in Lucknow.

Now with six more allegations pressed against the former director of CBI, it would be interesting to see how incidents unfold in coming days. Also, CVC’s role and Union government’s counter will also be interesting to watch out for.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 12, 2019 11:20 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).