New Delhi: CBI director Alok Verma, who is back from a forced leave after the Supreme Court reinstated him, ordered the transfer of five officers on Thursday, a day after he undid the transfer of 10 officials.
Those who have been transferred include DIG Tarun Gabha and joint director V Murugesan. While Gabha has been given additional charge of the team that was probing the case against special CBI director Rakesh Asthana, Murugesan will supervise the team, according to the latest order signed by Verma.
Other officers who have been transferred are joint director Ajay Bhatnagar, additional director AK Sharma and DIG MK Sinha. These officers were investigating Asthana at the time the government sent Verma on leave.
Verma had also cancelled the transfer of officers considered to be his loyalists on Wednesday, his first day back in office after three months of exile.
His decisions since his return suggest he is ready to confront the government and is willing to argue that the transfers do not violate the bar put on him from taking major policy decisions till a high-powered committee decides his fate.
But the moves have raised questions as they come at a time when a high-powered committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi met at his home to decide on whether he will continue in the post with full powers on the basis of a CVC inquiry into corruption charges against him.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court had set aside the government's order sending Verma on forced leave and replacing him with an interim CBI director. But while restoring him to his post, the court had said that he cannot take any major policy decisions until a high-powered selection committee featuring the PM, a CJI nominee and the leader of the largest opposition party decide on his status.
But dismissing questions on whether Verma has overstepped his authority in reversing the transfers and postings, officers close to him told News18 that his decisions had its basis in the legal opinions rendered by the law officers when interim director Nageswar Rao was leading the agency.
Sources state that Rao had sought legal opinions from the offices of the Attorney General and the Solicitor General as to whether transfer and posting of officers would count as “major policy decisions” or not and was informed that transfers and postings are “routine administrative functions” in the CBI and not “major policy decisions”.
Interestingly, to get his key officers back to the fold, Verma now banks on the same legal opinion which was once used to shunt them out.
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