RAW official pops up in CBI bribery probe

IMRANAHMED SIDDIQUI, TT, 31 Oct 2018, New Delhi: A senior official of India's external spy agency, the Research & Analysis Wing, has been named in the CBI's FIR in a bribery case against its benched special director Rakesh Asthana.

Samant Goel, special secretary in the RAW, is likely to be examined by the Central Vigilance Commission's team investigating the corruption charges against Asthana in a probe being supervised by Justice A.K. Patnaik, a retired Supreme Court judge.

The FIR accusing Asthana of corruption was registered by the CBI on October 15. while Goel's name figures in the FIR, he is not an accused in the case.

The CBI booked Asthana on a complaint from Hyderabad-based businessman Sathish Sana, who is under probe by the agency as a co-accused in a corruption case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi. Sana has alleged in his complaint that the special director assured him of a clean chit in return for a bribe. In a statement before the magistrate earlier this month, Sana named Asthana, Dubai-based middleman Manoj Prasad and his relative Somesh Srivastava.

"Goel allegedly tried to dilute the Moin Qureshi case with the help of the Dubaibased Manoj Prasad who is alleged to be the go-between in the bribe deal," a CBI official said. "The CBI has telephone intercepts, WhatsApp messages suggesting a link between Goel and Manoj Prasad and Somesh Srivastava," another official said.

Prasad was arrested earlier this month.

"Goel and Asthana are batch-mates and are believed to be close friends for a long time. The involvement of two IPS officers in the alleged extortion racket has left the government red-faced as both RAW and CBI directly report to Prime Minister's Office," the official said.

"The bribery scandal has become messy pointing to a web of conspiracy and the rot within in the country's federal agency involving senior officials," a Union home ministry official said.

Goel is a 1984 batch IPS officer like Asthana. While Asthana belongs to the Gujarat cadre, Goel is from the Punjab cadre.

Interim CBI chief CBI interim director M. Nageswara Rao has denied reports of alleged financial transactions and irregularities involving him, his wife Mannem Sandhya and a Calcutta firm and said everything had been mentioned in his annual property returns filed with the government.

In a signed statement issued in his personal capacity, the 1986-batch IPS officer from Odisha said details of transactions and investments made by him and his wife have been given to the competent authorities.

Rao said his wife had taken a loan of Rs 25 lakh from An- gela Mercantile Pvt Ltd, a company which belonged to "a longtime family friend Praween Agarwal" for buying an immoveable property in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.

Rao said the property was purchased by his wife jointly with her cousin Dr K Ratna Babu on September 18, 2010. A year later, his wife sold some acres of land from her inherited agricultural property for an amount of Rs 30.72 lakh and two months later sold more land for an amount of Rs 27.90 lakh.

"Thus she received a total amount of Rs 58.62 lakh as sale proceeds during 2011. This along with Rs 1.38 lakh from personal savings and a total of Rs 60 lakh was sent to Angela Mercantiles Private limited in 2011, who after deducting the loan amount retained the balance of Rs 35 lakh as investment," he said.

Rao said that in July 2014, a little less than three years of the investment, the Calcutta company returned to her Rs 41.33 lakh.