AK Bassi moves Supreme Court challenging his transfer to Andaman

CBI Officer AK Bassi has approached the Supreme Court challenging his transfer to Port Blair, Andaman & Nicobar Islands..In the petition filed through advocate Sunil Fernandes, Bassi has alleged that the transfer order issued on January 11 is vitiated by malafides and has been done with to scuttle the investigation against another CBI officer, Rakesh Asthana..The petitioner has contended that the said transfer order has been passed with the intent to victimize the petitioner. It is a non-speaking order and fails ton disclose any reasons for such a transfer..“The said Impugned Transfer Order is vitiated by malafides and non-application of mind. It is violative of the directions issued by this Hon’ble Court in its judgment dated 08.01.2019 in “Alok Kumar Verma vs. UOI & Anr., W.P (C) No. 1309 of 2018” (“Alok Verma”). It is passed by an officer/authority not competent to pass such orders. The impugned order intends to victimize the Petitioner herein. The impugned order seeks to unfairly prejudice the investigation against Shri Rakesh Asthana, in FIR RC 13(A)/ 2018/AC-III dated 15.10.2018.”.Bassi has raised apprehension that the transfer order is the first step towards implicating him in false criminal cases..Further, Bassi has stated in his petition that during the brief period during which Alok Verma was reinstated as CBI Director pursuant to the Supreme Court judgment, Bassi had been transferred back to Delhi after he had made a representation for the same on January 9. However, Verma was removed consequent to the decision of the High -powered Committee on January 11..The very same day, M Nageshwar Rao was assigned charge of Director and he issued instruction to transfer Bassi back to Andaman. Bassi has challenged this stating that the transfer to Delhi cannot be revoked by a generic order without stating any reasons..“The Petitioner’s representation dated 09.01.2019 was in pursuance to the liberty granted by this Hon’ble Court@ Para 42. Once the said representation was accepted and the Petitioner herein was transferred back to Delhi, it was not open for the impugned order to summarily, without application of mind and without any stated reason, simpliciter revoke the said transfer order dated 09.01.2019 by a generic order terming the earlier order as “non-est”..Bassi has also made some strong submissions against M Nageshwar Rao who is currently the acting Director. He has alleged that Rao represents certain elements within the CBI who do not want a free and fair probe against Rakesh Asthana and the petitioner’s transfer is at the behest of Rao..“Petitioner herein is being victimised by the present ‘acting’ Director-CBI – Shri M Nageswara Rao/Respondent No.2, who represents certain elements within the CBI, who did not want the Petitioner herein to conduct a free and fair investigation in the Asthana FIR. It was Shri M Nageswara Rao who had passed the infamous transfer order dated 24.10.2018 of the Petitioner herein and it is again the same Shri M Nageswara Rao at whose behest and direction the instant impugned transfer order has passed, in utter disregard to the judgment of this Hon’ble Court in Alok Verma supra..Bassi submits that the transfer order seeks to declare four orders as non est. However, only one of those four orders relates to the petitioner while the rest have no connection with him. Including them in a single office order and declaring them non est betrays non application of mind, he has contended..“…a bare perusal of the impugned order reveals it’s cryptic and cavalier nature. It is a generic omnibus order that seeks to “declare” Office Order Nos 50/2019 and 51/2019 dated 09.01.2019 and Office Order dated 60/2019 and 61/2019 dated 10.01.201 as “non est”. Out of these 4 office orders, only Office Order 51/2019 pertains to the Petitioner herein. The rest of the Office Orders have no connection whatsoever with the Petitioner herein and to include all of them in a single Office Order and to “declare” them “non est” is a shocking example of non-application of mind and betrays a pre-decided mindset oblivious to reason, fairness or transparency.”.Bassi has, therefore, prayed for quashing the transfer order of January 11..Read the petition below.

AK Bassi moves Supreme Court challenging his transfer to Andaman

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