New Delhi: The former Special Director Rakesh Asthana was blamed to take bribes from a pharma company Sterling Biotech, sources said. However, after a brief investigation of years, CBI has absolved him from this allegation by a fraud accused of the pharma company.
This is the second clean chit by the investigating agency received by him. He was removed from his position in 2018. The current chief of Border Security Force (BSF), was declared clean by CBI in March linked in another case by Moin Qureshi, a meat exporter.
CBI Director RK Shukla who retired last week signed a file declaring a clean chit to Rakesh Asthana and other related to the case in the mid of January, as per the sources. As stated by the CBI team, “It was a unanimous opinion of the investigation team, supervisory officers and the competent authorities to close the case for want of evidence,”
On August 30, 2017, a complaint was filed against three officers, Sterling biotech, and some unknown public servants for corruption. This was based on some details on a diary received from the premises of the promoters of Sterling Biotech, brothers Nitin Sandesare and Chetan, by the department of IT in 2011. Depending on the diary notes, Rakesh Asthana was accused by CBI director Alok Verma of getting a Rs.4 crore bribe from the Sandesara brothers.
Post investigation it was seen that there was no such bank account with the mentioned 12 digit numbers. After inspecting every minute detail, the investigation team was of the opinion to close it due to lack of evidence.