Vanishing Act: From Six to One Case Against Rakesh Asthana

NEW DELHI: Rakesh Asthana, the suspended Special Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), is at present being investigated solely in the case based on Satish Babu Sana’s complaint. However, in September, the CBI had mentioned his involvement as an accused in six cases. It is unclear what the reason for dropping his name from the other ongoing investigations.

The Indian Express had reported that in a reply to an application under the Right to Information Act (RTI Act), the CBI had only mentioned Asthana’s involvement in the case instituted on the complaint of Satish Babu Sana. Sana had allegedly paid Asthana for relief in the Moin Qureshi money laundering case. However, in September this year, the CBI had mentioned that Asthana was being investigated for his role in the Sterling Biotech case, the arrest of journalist Upendra Rai, the arrest of a caterer at the Palika Services Officers Institute (PSOI), and the involvement of Dipesh Chandak in the fodder scam case.

Also Read | Curative Petition on Rakesh Asthana’s Sterling Connections

Sterling Biotech

In the 1990s the Sandesara brothers, Chetan and Nitin, began manufacturing pharmaceutical grade gelatin. At the time, due to the growing generic drugs industry, pharmaceutical grade gelatin was in great demand. The brothers opened their first factory near Vadodara in the mid -1990s. In the 2000s, following the Gujarat riots, a new company was floated, Sterling Global. In 2004, Sterling Global won an oil exploration and extraction contract in Nigeria.

From around 2006, the Sandesaras began borrowing heavily from banks. The most prominent being Andhra Bank whose former Director, Anup Kumar Garg, has also been named in CBI’s FIR. It was around this time too that the health of their business interests steadily grew worse, which did not help their ability to repay their loans. In 2011, the raids on the offices led to two sets of initials being found, AP and RA. Both sets of initials have been alleged to stand for Congress MLA Ahmed Patel and Rakesh Asthana, respectively. In October 2017, the CBI filed its charge-sheets, but by then the Sandesaras had joined the ranks of Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi and had fled the country.

Also Read | FIR on Bribery: Senior CBI Officer Alleges Doval Tampered With Agency's Probe

Rakesh Asthana and the Sandesaras

There are varying reports of how the Sandesara’s met Asthana, however, it cannot be denied that they were aware of each other’s existence since Asthana was appointed as the Police Commissioner of Vadodara. There have also been reports that it was around the time of Asthana’s appointment in Vadodara when the Sandesaras renovated the police headquarters as well as made a donation to the Vadodara Traffic Education Trust (VTET).

Before Asthana was appointed as the Special Director of CBI, Common Cause, through senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan, had challenged his appointment in 2017. This case rested on three grounds; first, that the seizures at Sterling Biotech’s offices had allegedly found diaries and other papers where Asthana was mentioned as receiving sums of money. Asthana has maintained that the diaries and papers mentioned ‘RA’ which the company has claimed stood for ‘Running Account’. Yet when the Supreme Court dismissed the petition, one of the reasons was that there was no way of knowing whether the Asthana mentioned was the same as the man to be appointed.

Also Read | Prashant Bhushan Moves SC, Seeks Court-Monitored SIT Probe Into Charges of Malpractice in CBI

The second ground was that Asthana’s son Ankush Asthana had worked as an Assistant Manager in Sterling Biotech for over two years. Whereas the third and possibly clinching ground was Asthana’s daughter’s wedding.

The wedding was a lavish event, far removed from what an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer can afford and was held at the Laxmi Vilas Palace at Vadodara. The sangeet was arranged at a farmhouse owned by Chetan Sandesara of Sterling Biotech. Asthana maintained that the hotels and catering were complimentary services and that he had not paid for them. However, The Quint reported an unnamed former IPS officer from Gujarat commenting that the wedding violated the service rules. Under Schedule 16(4) of the All India Service (Conduct) Rules, 1968, a transaction worth twice the base salary must be reported. However, no explanation seems to have been offered regarding the sangeet.

Following the row between Asthana and the Director of CBI, Alok Verma, Common Cause filed a review petition in early December this year seeking that the earlier judgment be reconsidered. Based on the CBI’s response to Indian Express, dropping the Sterling Biotech case where there appears to be a strong hint of graft, if not outright bribery, smells a little fishy.