Court Raps CBI for Not Conducting Lie Detector Test on Asthana

The court had on 12 February expressed displeasure over CBI’s investigation into the case.

CBI’s former Special Director Rakesh Asthana.

(Photo: PTI)

A Delhi court rapped the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday, 19 February for not conducting psychological and lie detector tests on its former special director Rakesh Asthana in a bribery case in which he was recently given a clean chit.

Special CBI Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal directed the initial investigating officer, Ajay Kumar Bassi, in the case to appear before it on 28 February to explain the case diary.

The court further said that advocate Sunil Mittal, a co-accused in the case, "seems like a fictional character emerging from 'Mission Impossible' and 'James Bond' movies.

Why showing so much indulgence to him?" On Mittal's son-in-law Someshwar Prasad, the court asked, "Why you are showing so much indulgence to someone who isn't cooperating and didn't even share his phone?"

The court had on last Wednesday, 12 February expressed displeasure over CBI's investigation into the case and in a reference to Someshwar, it had asked why the accused with bigger roles were roaming free while the probe agency had arrested its own DSP.

Asthana and DSP Devender Kumar, who was arrested in 2018 and later got bail, were named in column 12 of the charge sheet in the case since there was not enough evidence to make them accused.

The CBI registered the case against Asthana on the basis of a complaint from Hyderabad-based businessman Satish Sana, facing probe in a 2017 case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi.