Hyderabad: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi Wednesday claimed that the government’s move to remove the CBI Chief and his deputy was wrong as the CBI director has a fixed tenure in office.
“According to Section 4 of the Delhi Police Establishment Act, you cannot remove the director. He has a fixed tenure. A high-power committee has nominated him. If CVC says it has recommended and (government) removed him, we would like to know what section (of law) it is,” he told reporters here.
The action taken by the government is completely illegal and wrong, he claimed. With the move, a message goes out in the country that the government is not standing by the fight against corruption, “but is standing by a corrupt officer”, he said.
The government’s decision to remove feuding CBI Director Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana is based on the CVC’s recommendations, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Wednesday, asserting that it is absolutely essential to restore the agency’s institutional integrity and credibility.
Both Verma and Asthana have been divested of their powers and sent on leave, as a fallout of a first-of-its kind spat between the top bosses of India’s premier investigating agency.
Joint Director M Nageswar Rao, a 1986-batch Odisha cadre IPS officer, has been appointed to look after the “duties and functions” of the director with “immediate effect” as an “interim measure.”
Owaisi, Lok Sabha member from Hyderabad, also alleged that all democratic institutions are being undermined, with their credibility being destroyed under the NDA government.