CBI vs CBI LIVE: PM Modi Panicked Over Rafale Deal Probe and Removed Alok Verma, Says Rahul Gandhi

CBI vs CBI LIVE Updates: Congress president Rahul Gandhi launched a blistering attack on the Narendra Modi government for divesting CBI director Alok Verma of his powers as he questioned why was the action taken at 2am. Gandhi, addressing a press conference, alleged that the Prime Minister panicked because Verma was set to probe the controversial Rafale deal and removed him from his post in the garb of cleaning up the investigative agency.

The Congress president said that the action was taken in the dead of the night so that Verma’s office could be sealed and incriminating documents on the Rafale fighter jet deal could be destroyed.

The CBI, on the other hand, has denied reports that Verma had ordered a preliminary inquiry into the Rafale deal, which has been used by the opposition to target the Narendra Modi government. An agency spokesperson said “false media reports are being manufactured for some vested purposes". Every document and file in CBI is accounted for at each level, the spokesperson added.

The Indian Express had received a 132-page complaint against alleged irregularities in the Rafale fighter deal with France and had ordered an inquiry when he was shunted out after the internal war with his second-in-command Rakesh Asthana. The opposition, led by Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, has alleged that Verma was removed in the middle of the night because he was scared the agency was about to start probing the Rafale deal.

Reacting on the CBI vs CBI row, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday also slammed the government for its ‘overnight decision’ and said that he has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue.

“They were perhaps dreaming of Rafale scam and of their friends who have escaped the country with loans. That’s why they took this decision overnight," the senior Congress leader said during a press conference. Earlier in the day, Congress had attacked the Centre after four ‘suspected’ Intelligence Bureau men were nabbed from outside the residence of Alok Verma, the CBI director who was sent on leave a day ago, saying the ‘IB is heading the CBI way’.

The men were intercepted sitting in two cars waiting outside Verma’s CBI House residence on Janpath since late on Wednesday. They have been identified as Dhiraj Kumar, Ajay Kumar, Prashant and Vineet Kumar Gupta. The men say that they are from the Intelligence Bureau. The men were subsequently handed over to the police.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged that the Centre is now ‘snooping’ on CBI Director through the IB.

The incident comes just a day after Verma was divested of all charges following an unprecedented feud with agency’s special director Rakesh Asthana. The two men have been sent on leave and an interim director, M Nageshwar Rao, has been made to take charge with immediate effect.

Calling the government’s action an “illegal interference," Verma said it “not only erodes the independence of the institution but also the morale of its officers."

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