The Enforcement Directorate has arrested Hyderabad businessman Sathish Babu Sana, whose bribery allegations against then CBI special director Rakesh Asthana had forced the Narendra Modi favourite to be shifted out of the agency.
Sana has been arrested in connection with a four-year-old money-laundering case against controversial meat exporter Moin Qureshi, who was being probed by both the ED and the CBI.
Sana, a Qureshi aide, had come under the CBI’s scanner last year. But, agency sources said, he was made a witness rather than an accused under a deal after levelling corruption charges against Asthana, a Gujarat-cadre IPS officer considered closed to Modi. Sana claimed to have paid a Rs 2-crore bribe to Asthana to weaken the case against Qureshi.
He has now been arrested by the ED, which was not known to be probing him at all and had merely summoned him as a witness in the Qureshi case a few months ago.
“Sana has an interesting profile: he is the complainant in the CBI’s case against Asthana but has now been made an accused in the ED case,” a government source said.
Sana’s arrest comes days after Tarun Gauba, the CBI officer supervising the bribery investigations against Asthana, was removed from the agency and repatriated to the Uttar Pradesh cadre.
Earlier, several CBI officers probing the bribery case had been transferred late last year, prompting allegations that the government was trying to protect Asthana. No chargesheet has been filed against Asthana yet.
An ED source said Sana was arrested in Delhi late on Friday night under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and was on Saturday remanded in five days’ custody with the directorate.
“He was questioned for a few hours and taken into custody as he was not cooperating with the probe. His links with Qureshi, including certain financial transactions, were found to be dubious,” the source said, refusing details.
In July last year, the CBI had filed an FIR against Asthana based on Sana’s statement, recorded before a magistrate, charging the officer with criminal conspiracy, corruption and criminal misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
At the time, the top two CBI officials, agency director Alok Verma and Asthana, were locked in a power struggle. Following Sana’s allegation, Verma and Asthana publicly accused each other of accepting bribes, the scandal prompting the government to bench both on October 24.
But the follow-up action against the duo has betrayed a contrast. Verma was removed from the CBI on January 10 this year, less than 48 hours after the Supreme Court had reinstated him, prompting him to choose retirement over his new, downgraded posting.
Asthana too was removed from the agency a week later but was given the prestigious post of director-general of the bureau of civil aviation security.
Earlier, immediately after the double benching in October, the government had transferred over a dozen CBI officers who were seen as Verma loyalists and some of whom were probing Asthana.
The ED had arrested Qureshi in 2017 and attached his assets. He is out on bail. The agency is also probing former CBI director A.P. Singh in the case.