Rakesh Asthana vs Alok Verma: The internal war in the CBI explained

The CBI, India's premier investigative agency, is currently in the midst of an internal war between its two top officials, Director Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana, with the latter having a bribery case filed against him, and, in turn, alleging that Verma received illegal gratification in the Moin Qureshi case. 

Here is a comprehensive explainer on the case:

1. Rakesh Asthana is seen as an outsider by a powerful Delhi Police Lobby, his parachuting resented. He didn't help his cause with his abrasive ways, leading to a coming together of powerful Delhi officers against him.
2. Asthana was made incharge of all crucial politically-sensitive investigations -- AgustaWestland, IRCTC, Bengal Chitfund, Vijay Mallya, Aircel-Maxis, INX Media -- making him the most important officer in the CBI
3. Professional rivalries intensified with the same cases simultaneously being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate.
4. What began as a turf war to take credit for investigations turned ugly with each trying to first downplay the other's role, and then obstructing each other's investigation.
5. Asthana's clout was resented by his chief, Director CBI Alok Verma
6. Verma and ED Chief Karnal Singh -- both Delhi Police officers came together to take on Asthana. Karnal was assisted by his deputy, ED joint director Rajeshwar Singh, who is a well connected Uttar Pradesh cadre officer.
7. The three were helped by the CBI's joint director (policy), AK Sharma, who is ironically a Gujarat cadre officer who doesn't see eye-to-eye with Asthana despite being from the same cadre. Before Asthana took over, it was Sharma who was incharge of all these cases and hence he resented Asthana's coming.
8. CBI Director Alok Verma shot the first arrow by writing to the CVC in October 2017 in which he said that Asthana (then a joint director) should not be elevated as special director as there were some inquiries going on against him. The appointments committee of the cabinet overruled the objection and Asthana was promoted.
9. This elevation of Asthana was challenged by Prashant Bhushan in the Supreme Court which rejected the petition and upheld the promotion.
10. Subsequently, Verma wrote to the CVC that in his absence Asthana should not be allowed to officiate as CBI chief as his name is under the scanner in some investigations, including in the Sterling Biotech case in which a diary entry showed Rs 3.78 crore against his initials 'RA' which investigators believed to stand for Rakesh Asthana.
11. In August 2018, Asthana hit back with a complaint of his own to the Cabinet Secretary, writing about at least ten instances of misdemeanours and corruption, and sought protection of the government. This was forwarded to the CVC which is the supervisory agency over the CBI.
12. Alok Verma responded to this by writing a letter of his own to the CVC, citing six specific cases of corruption in which Asthana was being investigated by the agency.
13. Asthana followed it up with three more letters in September to the CVC elaborating on the 'witch-hunt' against him by Verma, again seeking protection.
14. In the meantime, Asthana and his team that was investigating the Moin Qureshi case interrogated one Hyderabad businessman named Satish Babu Sana in September, who, according to them, named Verma as one of the beneficiaries of a Rs 2 crore bribe to let Moin Qureshi off the hook. While Asthana's team recovered Sana's statement they did not move further as the Director of the CBI was involved.
15. As information reached the Verma camp of Sana's statement, they got him to their side and made him overturn his statement, this time making Asthana as the beneficiary of the Rs 2 crore bribe, and hence, the main-accused. Verma went further and registered an FIR against Asthana on October 15 and arrested middleman Manoj Prasar on October 16.
16. The matter is now mired in charges and counter-charges: Asthana claims that Verma stopped him from arresting Sana in February and took away crucial cases like the IRCTC (Against Lalu Prasad) and INX Media (P Chidambaram and Karti Chidambaram) from him. Verma in his letters to the CVC has written that Asthana was passing information to Chidambaram. One CBI document was found from the Chidambaram residence in the ED's raid, thus compromising the investigation.
17. In all this, the government has come out looking adrift and not in control of the premier investigative agency. Given the fact that Asthana is from Gujarat cadre and was made head of all politically sensitive cases, it was assumed that he would have the government's backing. However, the manner in which the war within the CBI has panned out, it is clear that the government has kept an arm's length.
18. Why would the government not defend its own appointee? One reason could be that the post of Director CBI is a tenure post from which an incumbent cannot be easily removed, thus limiting the options so far as taking action against Verma is concerned.
19. The same set of officers led by Rajeshwar Singh had targeted another Gujarat cadre officer, Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, snaring him in a scandal involving Gold biscuits that were delivered at his doorstep during last Diwali by unknown persons. While Adhia has duly returned the gifts to the government treasury, a big issue was made of him not lodging a formal complaint. In this case too, the government was seen to be aloof, though Singh was slapped with an insubordination charge. 
20. Another possible reason for the government not doing much could be that in the meeting that Verma held sometime earlier with activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan who submitted a petition seeking CBI inquiry in the Rafale Aircraft purchase. The government fears that if it intervenes in the ego battle between Verma and Asthana, the former may hit back with a preliminary enquiry on Bhushan's plea thus leaving a political hot potato to handle nearer to the general elections.