Cracks in CBI: Who played what role

In the past few days, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been mired in controversy. The corruption charges against its top officials have shaken the country's premium investigative agency prompting the central government to send the Director Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana on leave. Nageshwar Rao has been appointed as the Interim Director until further orders. For the first time in its history, the CBI had to raid in its own office premises and seal its offices. Here’s a look at what role each official played in the case:

Alok Verma

Alok Verma is a 1979-batch IPS officer. He was appointed the CBI chief on February 1, 2017. An alumnus of St. Stephen’s College in Delhi, Verma has also served as the Delhi Police Commissioner. Special director Rakesh Asthana claimed that Satish Babu Sana had given Rs 2 crore to Verma so that he could be saved in the Moin Qureshi case.

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Rakesh Asthana

A 1984-batch IPS officer of the Gujarat cadre, Asthana is a Jawaharlal Nehru University alumnus. Asthana was the investigating officer in the Bihar Fodder Scam case and the arson cases during the Godhra train tragedy. A petition for his alleged role in the Sterling Biotech case was also filed. The CBI chief had alleged that he had received Rs 3.8 crore as bribe.

AK Sharma

The 1987-batch IPS officer of the Gujarat cadre, he joined the CBI as a joint director in 2015. At the beginning of this year, he was promoted to become an additional director. With this, all the cases seen by Asthana were given to Sharma.

Devendra Kumar

The CBI had suspended its deputy superintendent of police Devender Kumar, who is facing bribery allegations involving the agency's second-in-command Rakesh Asthana. He was sent to a seven-day CBI custody. He was an investigating officer in the case against Moin Qureshi. The CBI had claimed that he prepared Sana’s fake statement, who had accused him of bribing for relief in the case.

Moin Qureshi

An alumnus of the reputed Doon School and St. Stephen's College, he opened an abattoir at Rampur in Uttar Pradesh and later became India's largest meat exporter. It is alleged that he was very close to former CBI chiefs AP Singh and Ranjit Sinha. Agencies are investigating against them for theft, laundering, and corruption. In 2011, Quereshi invited well-known Pakistani singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan to his daughter's wedding.

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Satish Babu Sana

An industrialist from Hyderabad, he was at one time an employee with the Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Board. Since then he has worked in several companies. He is said to have a strong political connection. His name first appeared in an ED case against meat exporter Moin Qureshi in 2015. Asthana's team examined the case.

Manoj and Somesh Prasad

Manoj, a middleman operating from Dubai, was caught by the CBI. He is called an investment banker and he along with his brother Somesh have connections with several industrialists. Before going to Dubai, Somesh lived in London. Sana had claimed that Manoj had sought Rs 5 crore for clearing his name, which was to be given to Asthana.