by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
Verma VS Asthana saga
Mystery behind Missing seven Mobile phones
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, Nov. 1
The ugly battle between exiled CBI director Alok Verma and number 2 Rakesh Asthana took a new turn as seven mobile phones crucial to the probe have mysteriously vanished into thin air.
These seven mobile phones were confiscated from the office and residential premises of Devender Kumar, Deputy SP in the CBI, in raids by a special CBI team on October 22.
There was shock and disbelief in the CBI when the news of the recovery of such a large number of mobile phones from a DSP rank officer came to light. Inquiries revealed that Devender Kumar was the most trusted Investigating Officer of Asthana and was handling all sensitive cases. It is said that while one phone was dedicated for talks with Asthana, the other was international operations, third for CBI's official work, fourth for the family and others for being in touch with others.
Highly placed sources in the CBI say that Devender Kumar's telephones were under surveillance by the CBI's technical unit under Alok Verma after a case of bribery was registered against him and others on October 15-16. The CBI also obtained the Call Detail Records (CDRs) of all the telephones used by Devender Kumar and recorded certain sensitive information which may have some serious political ramifications in the days to come. The Verma faction in the CBI is disinclined to share details of tapping of phones of Devender Kumar, Asthana and others by his technical unit at this stage. It is said that Verma faction will disclose more details in the weeks to come.
A clue came yesterday when the CBI told the court that it had recovered only one mobile phone and not eight. This led to protests from Devender Kumar who pleaded that other telephones be returned as well. The CBI said it had seized only one mobile telephone. When Devender Kumar was arrested on October 22, CBI said that it had seized eight mobile phones, one laptop, electric items and documents etc.
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