Was in UK to attend Vijay Mallya hearing when middleman claims to have met me: Rakesh Asthana

With just two days remaining in the Supreme Court’s time limit assigned to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to complete its probe into the allegations of corruption against CBI director Alok Verma and his deputy, special director Rakesh Asthana, key witness Satish Sana has stuck to his claims made in the first FIR against Asthana.

According to media reports citing sources, the Hyderabad-based businessman validated his testimony that he gave Rs 3 crore bribe to Asthana through middlemen Somesh and Manoj Prasad.

Asthana, on the other hand, had appeared before the CVC on Friday and claimed that he was in the UK to attend the hearings in the Vijay Mallya case at the time when the middleman claims to have met him.

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Sana also claimed that Somesh Prasad, one of the two middlemen, had met Asthana at his CBI office in Delhi on December 16 and made him hear the confirmation from the special CBI director about his case.

Verma had alleged that Asthana took the bribe from Sana to clear his name from the Moin Qureshi case. Following this, an FIR was lodged against Asthana on October 15.  Last month, the Supreme Court had granted interim relief to Asthana and asked the agency to maintain the status quo.

Hours after the SC relief to Asthana, both Verma and his deputy were deprived of their powers and sent on indefinite leave by the Centre.