New Delhi, Dec 05, 2018 : The central government on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that it had sent CBI director Alok Verma on leave because the image of the investigative agency was taking a beating due to the fight between two officers and not because of the corruption complaint against him, News18 reported.
Slamming both Verma and special CBI director Rakesh Asthana, Attorney General KK Venugopal said the government had to intervene because the two officers could not keep the fight in-house. "The officers brought ridicule to the CBI. They couldn’t keep it private to be sorted out in-house," he said.
“After carefully examining material made available to centre and after careful consideration of the issues, Centre was satisfied that a situation had arisen wherein Centre had to take action to divest Alok Verma,” he told the apex court.
“Our objective was to ensure that public confidence in the institution is not eroded, so both officers were sent on leave,” he added.