Exiled CBI director Alok Verma files response to SC on CVC report

New Delhi: Exiled CBI Director Alok Verma filed his response to Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) preliminary probe report on corruption charges against him, after the Supreme Court granted him additional time to make the submission.

Verma has filed his response in sealed cover after the apex court granted him additional time till 4 pm to file his response.

Earlier on Monday, the Supreme Court asked CBI number one to file his response “as quickly as possible” as it would not adjourn the hearing to another date.

Gopal Sankarnarayanan, who had appeared on behalf of Alok Verma, had on Monday sought more time to file the response.

“We are not shifting the date. You file as quickly as possible. We have to read the response,” a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said.

Alok Verma has challenged the government’s decision to send him on forced leave after differences between him and CBI special director Rakesh Asthana came out in the open. Verma and Asthana have both accused each other of corruption.

The country’s top investigating agency, CBI, filed a case against Asthana, who, in turn, wrote to the cabinet secretary and the vigilance chief listing allegations against his boss Alok Verma.

The Supreme Court had given the CVC two weeks to probe Asthana’s allegations of corruption against Verma.

The Supreme Court last week did not give a clean chit in the vigilance report on corruption allegations against Alok Verma.

The report is “complimentary on some charges, not-so-complimentary on some charges and very uncomplimentary on some charges,” the apex court had said, and asked the CBI chief to respond to the report in a sealed cover by Monday.

The CVC’s report is a “mixed bag” and exhaustive, Chief Justice Gogoi had told the CBI chief’s lawyer Fali Nariman last week, adding, “Further inquiry is required into some charges as per the CVC report.”