by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
Dragging RAW sealed Verma’s fate
RAW Chief told PM: Sir, better we shut down ! We are exposed by our own agency
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, Oct 28
Dragging Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), country’s premier external intelligence agency, in the turf war dug CBI Director Alok Verma’s grave on the early hours of Tuesday last.
Highly placed sources say that the Prime Minister was seething with anger with Alok Verma after he exposed RAW’s secret operations in Dubai to settle scores with his Special Director Rakesh Asthana.
No doubt, the government was upset with Verma for the past many months for declaring an open war with Asthana and even registered an FIR against him.
But his fate was sealed the moment he made RAW’s number 2 Sumant Kumar Goel's name public in the Asthana case . All hell broke in the top echelon of the Modi government as Sumant Kumar Goel is a highly rated officer. He is in the line of being made RAW chief after current chief retires in December. Verma named Goel in the FIR though not as an accused. An angry RAW chief Anil Dhasmana rushed to the Prime Minister on Sunday -October 21 and told him “Sir its better we shut down the RAW. Our entire operations in Dubai have been exposed by our own agency, our men are in danger ! How can we deliver?” Dhasmana told the PM that Sumant Kumar Goel was once Dubai’s RAW head. He also told that Mahesh Prasad and Somesh Prasad are the sons of former RAW Director R R Prasad. He was once head of RAW operations in Dubai. Mahesh Prasad is an Investment banker while Somesh Prasad runs his own company. Both the brothers used to help RAW whenever needed and provide vital information. They were in touch with Sumant Kumar Goel who was RAW’s operations head in Dubai once.
The problem began when Asthana recorded a statement of a Hyderabad businessman Satish Babu Sana to allege that he had paid a bribe of Rs 2 crores to Alok Verma to go-slow in the Moin Qureshi case. He sent the complaint to the CVC against Verma. But Sana took a U-turnsoon and confessed before a Magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC that he paid a bribe of Rs 2.95 crore to Asthana’s middlemen Manoj Prasad and Somesh Prasad to get relief in the Moin Qureshi case. Sana is an accused in the Moin Qureshi case.
The government avoided any precipitated action and tried to solve the issue with dialogue even at this late stage. But the moment Verma named Sumant Kumar Goel in the FIR and said that Mahesh Prasad is being probed for his alleged hawala links as well as connections with certain R&AW officials, all hell broke. The naming of RAW's number 2 sealed Verma's fate.
Ends
