NEW DELHI: The CBI’s warring top two, Alok Verma and his deputy Rakesh Asthana, were sent on leave and several officers were transferred in a stunning overnight ‘coup’ by the government that saw an interim chief taking charge of the country’s top investigating agency at 1.45 am last night. M Nageswar Rao’s first act after his late-night promotion was to sign orders shifting several members of a team investigating corruption charges against Rakesh Asthana. CBI director Alok Verma’s petition against the government’s move will be taken up by the Supreme Court on Friday.

Here are the 10 biggest developments in this story:

“The decision to remove the director, special director was taken to restore institutional integrity and credibility of CBI,” said Union Minister Arun Jaitley, articulating the government’s first response to questions raised by the opposition.

A 1 AM government note ordering the changes followed massive infighting that escalated as the CBI filed a case against its number two, Rakesh Asthana, last week, accusing him of taking bribe to cover up an investigation.
When the CBI started investigating Rakesh Asthana, he wrote to the government alleging that it was his boss Alok Verma who had taken a bribe in the same case and who was trying to frame him.

“To maintain the fairness of an impartial probe… it was necessary that the two senior-most officers involved must sit out on leave till an impartial investigation is complete,” Mr Jaitley said.

Alok Verma and Rakesh Asthana were barred from their offices this morning and officers working with the CBI director were transferred after Nageswar Rao took over. One officer in the director’s team, AK Bassi, has been moved to Port Blair “in public interest”.

The country’s top anti-corruption officer, Chief Vigilance Commissioner KV Chowdary, had recommended to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday that both officers be sent on “compulsory wait” as “neither of these two officers nor any agency under their supervision can investigate charges against them.”

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval reportedly summoned two officers around 1 AM and asked them to put out the order appointing an interim CBI chief. By 2 am, acting chief Nageswar Rao was in his new room at the CBI headquarters and signing off on a series of transfers.

The opposition has accused the government of trying to protect Rakesh Asthana – a Gujarat cadre officer dubbed the Prime Minister’s “blue-eyed boy” by Congress president Rahul Gandhi – who, after being appointed the number two officer last year despite stiff opposition from Alok Verma, handled major investigations.

Opposition parties including the Congress accused the government of violating rules, insisting that Alok Verma could not be removed in the middle of his fixed two-year term as CBI director without a meeting of a group that includes the PM, Chief Justice and leader of opposition.

Rakesh Asthana yesterday took the CBI to court, asking for the charges against him to be cancelled and for protection from arrest. The Delhi High Court did not cancel the case, but sent notice to the CBI director and said Rakesh Asthana would not be arrested at least until it heard the case next Monday.