CBI vs CBI: Delhi HC reserves order in plea to extend time to probe Rakesh Asthana, Devendra Kumar

The Delhi High Court today reserved its order in the plea filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeking an extension of the ten-week time period granted to conclude the probe into CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana and DSP Devendra Kumar..The matter was heard by a Single Judge Bench of Justice Mukta Gupta..Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee stated that the CBI would need another four months’ time to complete its investigation in the matter..CBI’s plea was opposed by Asthana and Kumar, as well as the alleged middleman who is facing an investigation..It was argued that CBI’s application was not maintainable after the main writ petition was disposed of. The Court was also informed that Devendra Kumar has already preferred an appeal against the dismissal of his writ petition seeking quashing of the FIR lodged against him..Since no notice has been issued in the matter by Supreme Court yet, the High Court decided to proceed with the matter..Invoking section 482 CrPC, CBI argued that the plea was made to facilitate fair and free investigation. It was also stated that there could be no time-bound fetters on the CBI’s power to conduct investigation..Last month, the High Court had directed the CBI to submit a timeline of events indicating the progress of its investigation in the FIR lodged against Asthana..On January 11 this year, the High Court had refused to quash the FIR lodged against Asthana, Devender Kumar and Manoj Prasad. On that date, it had directed the CBI to conclude the investigation against them in ten weeks..Asthana allegedly accepted a bribe of Rs. 2 crore in exchange for a clean chit to Satish Sana in the investigation into the Moin Qureshi case. This led to the registration of an FIR against Asthana and others..Rakesh Asthana was represented by Senior Advocate Amarendra Sharan, with Advocate Amit Anand..Devender Kumar was represented by Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan..Bar & Bench is available on WhatsApp. For real-time updates on stories, click here to subscribe to our WhatsApp.