The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on October 22, 2018, conducted raids inside its own headquarters and arrested Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Devinder Kumar in connection with a bribery case against CBI's special director and the No. 2 in the organisation, Rakesh Asthana.
On October 15, 2018, an FIR was filed naming Asthana as a prime accused, alleging that he had received kickbacks, amounting to Rs.2 crore, from Moin Qureshi, a meat exporter, to settle a money-laundering case against him.
After institution of the bribery case, Asthana wrote a letter to the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) on October 19, 2018, entailing that he was falsely accused in the case and that it was the CBI director Alok Verma who accepted the kickbacks. The agency came out in defence of its chief after the allegations.
Devinder Kumar has been arrested on charges of fabricating the statement of Satish Sana, the complainant in the case. As many as eight mobile phones, a laptop and few documents were seized in searches that were carried out at Kumar's office and home.
Devinder Kumar, IO [investigating officer] of the case created a statement of Satish Sana under Section 161 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. During the investigation, the CBI found that Devinder was not present in Delhi on September 26, 2018, as claimed in the statement. He joined the investigation on October 1, 2018, and recorded the statement on October 3, 2018, the CBI said in a statement.
Further, the agency added that it was found out that Devinder fabricated the statement as an afterthought to corroborate allegations made by special director Rakesh Asthana against director Alok Verma before the CVC.
The decision to file an FIR against Rakesh Asthana was taken after Manoj Prasad, a Dubai-based businessman was arrested by CBI from the Delhi airport. Satish Sana's role is also being investigated by the CBI special investigation team (SIT).
Sana allegedly took Asthana's name in his statement and said that he had paid over Rs.2 crore through Manoj Prasad.
