The true facts of recent developments related to Shri Rakesh Asthana, IPS who was Special Director in CBI (mostly called CBI No. 2)

Dear Friends,

I am once again coming back to you, with sole intention to make you aware the true facts of recent developments related to my elder brother Shri Rakesh Asthana, IPS who was Special Director in CBI (seniority wise he was number 2, mostly called CBI No. 2) till 17th January 2019 & recently relocated as Director General Civil Aviation Security by the Government.

I am sure you had plenty of information not only about the unfortunate incident ( the tussle between the then CBI No.1 & 2), but also about him, about other people involved in the case, through TV Media, through print media and through social media, all of which raked the whole country for last 3 to 4 months.

Definitely all those floating information to which you came across, no doubt some were near to the truth but many of those were fake & circulated with biased intentions.

I went through all and as my brother was holding a very sensitive post in CBI, was conducting probes in many politically sensitive corruption cases, the outcome of which could have great political ramifications (from that point of view his post was considered as very significant), I could sense and analyse how much fake propaganda, fake news and fake information were spread in the media by people of vested interest in waring faction, holding very high connections to very influential people – be it prominent lawyers, law makers & powerful media lobby.

The misinformation campaign was vigorously conducted by them in the social media, print & TV media through out the episode with many intentions – one of course to malign the reputation of him & that of the government and the most dangerous intention was to influence the judgement of Supreme Court or High Court by way of misinformation campaign.

I was even greatly surprised to notice that many prominent & famous senior lawyers of Supreme Court, who posses very sharp legal mind, having ability to twist the facts so diligently to prove a lie as truth, & who claim to fight for truth or for common cause, were fighting for those who were corrupt, tainted, & influential. I could sense easily that they were playing (& always used to play) a much bigger, nefarious role in the political game of power, whenever such cases come to higher judiciary and for them money is more important than common cause or honesty of an officer, or the ultimate goal of rooting out corruption

Last three to four months were really difficult, stressful and not so favourable to him ( my elder brother ). You can understand how difficult was the time specially to him and to the whole family members. Yet, he withstood all those adversities, stood firmly to the stand he took, to his fight against corruption with in CBI ( complaint letter) , fought the whole battle single-handedly and ultimately after rigorous legal scrutiny at five stages – first by vigilance commissioners, then by CVC, then by the CVC inquiry committee monitored by retired Supreme Court Judge, then the bench of honourable Supreme Court and ultimately the high powered select committee ( of PM, CJI nominated SC Judge & Leader of Opposition), his stand was proved correct & his stand vindicated in the fight against corruption.

Believe me no ordinary officer can take fight to this extend, risking his own career.

This extraordinary challenge can be met by an officer who is upright, honest, & who maintains very high integrity, an officer who understands the law at depth, an officer who understands the complexity of the systems & legality involved very well. We are proud that my elder brother met this challenge, definitely one of the most difficult & greatest ever challenge of his career, so effectively and came out victorious.

I met him several time during the period of crisis and always observed him maintaining absolute calm, absolutely firm in fight against corruption, and always have immense confidence of winning the case ultimately. Not only that he always kept motivating us – the worried family members & friends in those moments of grave crisis by saying “just wait & see, I am going to win, as I am on right path”

You would be definitely curious about the cause or triggering point behind this crisis. It was like this – he and his team was probing several politically sensitive corruption cases – IRCTC Scam, AIRCEL – MAXIS Scam, PNB Scam, Vijay Mallya Extradition, Augusta Westland Chopper Scam ….etc. & in some of those investigations his team was surprised to find the leads of corruption within CBI. Without delay the matter was reported to CVC, otherwise if not reported, he & his team could be said to be biased or hiding corruption with in the premier organisation. That led to intense professional rivalry and ego tussle within CBI as the tainted officers feared exposure of their corrupt activities to public.

There was another reason – as he was probing with speed the politically sensitive corruption cases outcome of which could have great political ramifications, it was feared by them that very soon they would be exposed. They played all kinds of dirty tricks, got the links and influenced the then CBI No # 1 to go slow or scuttle probes. As a consequence or as a revenge to complaint in CVC against him, & also with an intention to help tainted highly influential people, the then CBI No # 1 started taking away all sensitive cases from my brother & handed over to another tainted officer of his team.

The sense of rivalry, the intense desire to take revenge do not end here, there were nefarious intentions to malign him by hook or by crook. With those nefarious intentions, the then CBI No # 1 brought his trusted lower rank Delhi Police Officer who had dubious track record, to find out every possible details, any irregularities related to Rakesh Asthana, by sending him to every cities & locations of Gujarat. Despite their best efforts, they could not find anything against Rakesh Asthana as his track records were absolutely impeccable.

It was quite apparent from CVC enquiry that focus of the then CBI No # 1 was not at all on logical & decisive conclusions of probes of highly politically sensitive corruption cases, as he was trying every possible tricks to demoralise the CBI teams and as an end result scuttle those sensitive probes.

Despite being selected by high powered select committee constituted of PM, CJI & Leader of Opposition for the prestigious post of DIrector, CBI for fixed tenure of 2 years, and by that way assigned the constitutional powers, it was a fact emerged out from CVC inquiry that the then CBI No. 1 was not doing the job assigned to him in a proper way, in fact it was really unfortunate that powers were misused to meet vested interests, to demoralise his own team, and it was also alleged that ultimately he had intentions to do much worse than what he did.

He had clear intentions to malign reputations of Rakesh Asthana to such an extend that his next elevation in his career gets affected. He with the help of tainted officers not only limited himself in filing a fabricated & false FIR against Rakesh Asthana but also entered adverse notings in the ACR. It was clear that his aim was to ruin the career of a Rakesh Asthana – an honest, upright and incorruptible officer having impeccable and very impressive track records. You can understand how dangerous and explosive the situation was for the government to handle.

An officer just because he is selected by high powered select committee of PM, CJI & Leader of Opposition for fixed tenure of 2 years, invested with crucial constitutional powers of investigation and probing & above all can only be removed by high powered Committee only ( as came out from SC judgement) can blows havoc into the organisation, can bring constitutional crisis so easily without following laid down procedures by misinterpretation of vested powers or by misuse of powers, if his conscience is not clear, if he is having intentions other than the designated duties or if he is having political ambitions. These facts emerged out from CVC inquiry clearly suggest to relook into the laid down procedures of appointment and removal of officers on posts of constitutional authority, to avoid such extraordinary situation or constitutional crisis.

I would also like to bring following facts before you.

The CBI team led by Rakesh Asthana was investigating the Augusta Westland case, successfully extradited the middleman Michel in absolute perfect coordination with IB, RAW, NSA and ministry of external affairs, despite last minute efforts made by one section of CBI to scuttle the whole operation by illegally tapping phone calls of officers, government functionaries linked to this extradition process.

The CBI team led by Rakesh Asthana successfully won the extradition case of liquor baron Vijay Mallya in the London Court despite every dirty efforts made by Vijay Mallya to misled the court. His team of lawyers made scathing attack and serious false allegations against Probing officer Rakesh Asthana, but could not prove in the court as all those allegations were false & fabricated. If you read the judgement, the Judge in fact set aside all allegations, and praised the conduct & efforts of Rakesh Asthana. It is in the first time of history of India, that CBI could successfully win in foreign court the case of extradition.

A prominent lawyer of Common Cause filed PIL after PIL & finally a curative PIL in Supreme Court against Rakesh Asthana elevation as Special Director. His arguments were based on false & incorrect facts, & therefore every time his PIL was rejected by honourable Supreme Court after hearing. Later on, it was realised that he was filing false PILs in Supreme Court just to malign & defame Rakesh Asthana and to help Mallya indirectly in London Court, as lawyers of Mallya cited these PILs in London Court.

You can understand how difficult for an upright, resolute, firm, honest & incorruptible Officer to work dedicatedly in such corruption cases, as every efforts are made to put obstacles be it legal or social or many a times by threat to life.

The highly influential and rich person (like Vijay Mallya) against whom corruption cases are there are observed to be adopting every dirty trick, using connections with influential people, distinguished legal minds to somehow derail the probe or delay the probe.

I hope you understood the whole situation that led to unfortunate tussle, and to save the integrity & reputation of the premier investigating agency, to save his own team, Rakesh Asthana greatly risked his own career and decided to turn whistle blower. Yes, to a greater extent he won the fight against corruption, his valiant efforts cleaned the mess in the premier investigating agency and saved its image from further deterioration.

I strongly feel that & you too agree with me that he shall be suitably rewarded for his valiant extraordinary efforts in cleaning the mess in CBI, saving the government at crucial moment and successfully extraditing Michel & wining case of extradition of Mallya in London Court.

Now as per DELHI HC directives, the investigation against a false & fabricated case against him shall complete expeditiously in 10 weeks time. I am sure that a thorough investigation will prove beyond doubt the honesty of RAKESH Asthana and reveal the dangerous & explosive plot of tainted officers in CBI working behind huge international conspiracy to malign him.

You can easily understand how the career of honest, upright & incorruptible officers are challenged in premier organisation if they do their duty honestly without budging to external pressures.

I am sure people like us who want a corruption free society will always stand for officers like him, raise our voices & concerns so that corruption get rooted out from our country and corrupt, tainted people how high or mighty they be, shall get punishment for their misdeeds.

And at the same time, honest, upright, dedicated officer like RAKESH Asthana shall get due recognition of his valiant efforts and rewarded with desired elevation in his impeccable career decorated with several achievements. His dedicated & honest services to the nation must be recognised.

At the end of this article, I am giving a brief account of Rakesh Asthana, educational & professional career record so far

Rakesh Asthana is the second son of Late Shri H. K.Asthana & late Smt Gyaneshwari Asthana. Shri H.K.Asthana was a teacher in biology in Netarhat School, Netarhat – a very prestigious residential school 150 KM away from Ranchi.

Rakesh Asthana did his schooling ( matriculation & Intermediate Arts) from Netarhat School & emerged as meritorious student.

He was gold medalist in B.A. and M.A. honours in History subject from the prestigious college – St. Jones College AGRA.

He started his career as Lecturer of History Subject in prestigious college – St. Xavier’s College, RANCHI, however cracking UPSC Civil Services Examination was what his goal always. Even the selection to the post of Lecturer in prestigious St. Xavier’s College was real tough one as for one post, around forty applicants were short listed for interview all having qualifications & experiences. But my brother wasn’t having teaching experience that time, however St. Xavier’s College Management selected him, definitely they found something unique & different in him, other than the obvious facts that he being youngest candidate, energetic, enthusiastic, possessing excellent educational records. They definitely observed that he had zeal and passion to take the challenging job of educating & motivating young minds.

In a short period of one year, he became immensely popular among students of St. Xavier’s College RANCHI, & while pursuing his profession of lecturer, he prepared very hard during his free times after lectures, late night hours in home, for UPSC Civil Services examination and qualified and selected for Indian Police Services (IPS) in his very first attempt in 1984. He got GUJARAT Cadre. It was one of the greatest achievement by all means which every young aspiring youth dream in his life & he achieved this with all dedication & hard work. We in the family felt absolutely elated.

He started his career in Indian Police Services from Gujarat in a flourishing note.

He got his first stint in CBI, from year 1992 to 2000, & in that period he investigated the infamous Fodder Scam meticulously as SP-CBI DHANBAD & later on as DIG – CBI PATNA. The investigation report passed the strict judicial scrutiny at lower court, high court & Supreme Court & resulted in 100% conviction rate.

In the year 2001, when he returned back to GUJARAT, his parent cadre, he was made Incharge of SIT to investigate the unfortunate incidence of train burning case happened in Godhra. This case too he investigated very thoroughly & meticulously, traced the lead & master minds of this conspiracy. His investigation was accepted in courts & various inquiry commissions set up by state & central governments.

He was youngest to become Commissioner of Police, VADODARA city first & later on to SURAT City.

During his tenure at VADODARA, he solved the mysterious & puzzling Bomb Blast Cases which were happening in several cities of India including DELHI , allegedly to be master minded by infamous terrorist organisations very active that time in India. He traced the master minds hiding in places of UP & helped in their neutralisation.

As Commissioner of Police – SURAT, on several complaints, he initiated the case against infamous, self proclaimed Godman NARAIN SAI & his gang, traced him, as he was hiding from arrest & dodging to police, by changing places all over INDIA, & finally sent him to jail, giving justice to so many innocent people who were cheated & harassed by NARAIN SAI.

Also under his initiative, the complete SURAT city was covered under 100% CCTV surveillance ( more than 5000 CCTV Cameras installed) through a centralised Police control room. It greatly helped in surveillance of the complete city.

In his second stint in CBI initially as Additional Director & later on as Special Director on promotion, he successfully extradited Michel a suspected middleman involved in Augusta Westland case despite all obstacles. Successful Extradition of a accused for foreign origin happened first time in history of India. It was no doubt a great achievement.

Also as stated earlier, the CBI team under his leadership won the long legal battle of extradition case of Vijay Mallya in London Court despite all odds.

He is one of the senior IPS officers whose legal scrutiny has been done several times in Court as PILs were filed several times, even curative PIL was filed in Supreme Court by “Common Cause” and every time those PILs could not stand the arguments / grilling, as false & frivolous allegations in PILs could not be proved & finally honourable Supreme Court rejected all those PILs.

Solving those sensitive cases by carrying out meticulous investigation in timely manner, clearly prove his sharp investigative skills and his thorough understanding of law.

I strongly believe and you too will agree that with such distinguishing achievements in his career so far, he is the most eligible & deserving candidate to head the premier investigating agency to pursue cases of corruption effectively & conclusively. He is honest, upright, incorruptible & above all never budge under pressure or threat.

M.K.Asthana (Younger Brother of Shri Rakesh Ashthana)