Delhi court accepts CBI clean chit to Rakesh Asthana

A court in Delhi accepted the clean chit given to CBI's former special director Rakesh Asthana in a bribery case. The court observed that there was no sufficient ground to proceed against Rakesh Asthana.

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Saturday gave assent to the charge sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a bribery case, in which agency's former special director Rakesh Asthana was recently given a clean chit.

"There is no sufficient ground to proceed against Rakesh Asthana and DSP Devender Kumar. We will see if anything comes in future investigation being conducted by the CBI," Special CBI Judge Sanjeev Agarwal said.

Asthana and Kumar, who was arrested in 2018 and later released on bail, were named in column 12 of the charge sheet since "there was not enough evidence to make them an accused".

The charge sheet, filed on February 11, had only arrayed "middleman" Manoj Prasad as accused.

The court took cognizance of the charge sheet and said that there are "sufficient grounds to proceed against accused Manoj, his brother Someshwar Prasad and father-in-law Sunil Mittal."

Now, the court has summoned both Someshwar Prasad and Mittal and asked them to appear on April 13.

The court took cognizance of the offences under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating), 385 (extortion) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 7 (expecting to be a public servant) and 8 (taking gratification) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The CBI had, on October 15, 2018, registered an FIR against Asthana for allegedly accepting a bribe from an accused probed by him in return for ensuring relief and was given clean chit in the case.

The complaint was filed by Hyderabad-based businessman Satish Babu Sana who was being probed by Asthana as part of a probe into money laundering by meat exporter, Moin Qureshi.

IANS