News Analysis India

Tag: Alok Verma

  • Hubby of UP woman bureaucrat accuses her, ‘lover’ of ‘plotting to murder him’

    CHENNAI: A top bureaucrat in UP, Jyoti Maurya, finds herself in a tight corner.

    The 36-year-old officer is trending on social media for the wrong reasons. It’s a love turned sour, a domestic dispute gone awry thing from what one gathers from reports on Hindi media.

    The Bareilly Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) is accused of corruption as well as cheating on her husband, Alok, who is a class – 4 employee with the Panchayat Raj department.

    Jyoti married Alok Maurya in 2010 when she was doing her graduation course. Alok was then working as a “sweeper.” Alok reportedly helped Jyoti prepare for UPPSC (Uttar Pradesh Civil Service Commission) in Prayagraj. According to reports it was he who supported and funded Jyoti’s education which ultimately helped her to crack the state civil services examination.

    Jyoti Maurya secured 16th rank in the PCS examination in 2015. He then gave the credit for this success to his father-in-law. Jyoti has been posted in Jaunpur, Kaushambi, Pratapgarh, Prayagraj and Lucknow after becoming PCS. The couple have two daughters.

    Now, Alok has accused Jyoti and Manish Dubey, her home guard commandant, with whom she is allegedly having an affair, of conspiring to murder him.

    Alok lodged a complaint against Manish Dubey and his wife with the Home Guard Headquarters. DG Home Guard VK Maurya has handed over the probe to Deputy Commandant General Santosh Kumar of Prayagraj.

    Meanwhile, Dhumanganj Inspector Rajesh Maurya said that Jyoti has filed a dowry harassment case against her husband and others.

    Alok Maurya has claimed his wife is a corrupt officer and has received bribes in the form of commissions. As proof of his allegations against his wife, he has provided a diary which contained details about the SDM’s “illicit earnings” which amount to a whopping Rs 6 lakhs in monthly collections, Zee News reported.

    Citing details mentioned in the diary provided, the report revealed that Jyoti’s tale of corruption started in early 2019 when she was posted as a probationary officer in the Kaushambi tea subdivision and received bribes in the form of commissions on a monthly basis.

    (With inputs from Deepa Sinha, TNIE Online Desk.)

    CHENNAI: A top bureaucrat in UP, Jyoti Maurya, finds herself in a tight corner.

    The 36-year-old officer is trending on social media for the wrong reasons. It’s a love turned sour, a domestic dispute gone awry thing from what one gathers from reports on Hindi media.

    The Bareilly Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) is accused of corruption as well as cheating on her husband, Alok, who is a class – 4 employee with the Panchayat Raj department.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Jyoti married Alok Maurya in 2010 when she was doing her graduation course. Alok was then working as a “sweeper.” Alok reportedly helped Jyoti prepare for UPPSC (Uttar Pradesh Civil Service Commission) in Prayagraj. According to reports it was he who supported and funded Jyoti’s education which ultimately helped her to crack the state civil services examination.

    Jyoti Maurya secured 16th rank in the PCS examination in 2015. He then gave the credit for this success to his father-in-law. Jyoti has been posted in Jaunpur, Kaushambi, Pratapgarh, Prayagraj and Lucknow after becoming PCS. The couple have two daughters.

    Now, Alok has accused Jyoti and Manish Dubey, her home guard commandant, with whom she is allegedly having an affair, of conspiring to murder him.

    Alok lodged a complaint against Manish Dubey and his wife with the Home Guard Headquarters. DG Home Guard VK Maurya has handed over the probe to Deputy Commandant General Santosh Kumar of Prayagraj.

    Meanwhile, Dhumanganj Inspector Rajesh Maurya said that Jyoti has filed a dowry harassment case against her husband and others.

    Alok Maurya has claimed his wife is a corrupt officer and has received bribes in the form of commissions. As proof of his allegations against his wife, he has provided a diary which contained details about the SDM’s “illicit earnings” which amount to a whopping Rs 6 lakhs in monthly collections, Zee News reported.

    Citing details mentioned in the diary provided, the report revealed that Jyoti’s tale of corruption started in early 2019 when she was posted as a probationary officer in the Kaushambi tea subdivision and received bribes in the form of commissions on a monthly basis.

    (With inputs from Deepa Sinha, TNIE Online Desk.)

  • Home Ministry recommends disciplinary action against former CBI director Alok Verma

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Union home ministry has recommended disciplinary action against former CBI director Alok Verma for allegedly misusing his official position and violating the relevant service rules, officials said on Wednesday.

    They said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has written to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the nodal ministry for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), to take necessary disciplinary action against Verma.

    The action, if approved, may include temporary or permanent forfeiture of Verma’s pension and retirement benefits, the officials said.

    ALSO READ: After removal as CBI chief, 8 phones of Alok Verma, kin listed for Pegasus snooping, claims report 

    During his stint in the CBI, Verma, a 1979-batch (retired) Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, was engaged in a bitter fight with Gujarat-cadre IPS officer and his deputy Rakesh Asthana over corruption charges.

    Both Verma and Asthana had accused each other of corruption.

    Asthana is the Delhi Police Commissioner now.

    “Verma has been accused of misusing his official position and violating service rules. Necessary action has been recommended against him by the home ministry,” a senior official said, requesting anonymity.

    The home ministry is the cadre controlling authority for IPS officers.

    The DoPT has forwarded the MHA’s recommendation to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), the recruitment body for IPS officers, the officials said.

    The UPSC needs to be consulted before imposing penalty on IPS officers, they said.

    Verma took over as the CBI chief on February 1, 2017 for a fixed two-year tenure.

    However, he was removed from the post on January 10, 2019 and posted as the director general of Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guards — a less significant portfolio.

    Verma did not accept the offer and wrote to the government, saying he should be considered as deemed superannuated as he has completed 60 years age of superannuation on July 31, 2017.

  • After removal as CBI chief, 8 phones of Alok Verma, kin listed for Pegasus snooping, claims report 

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Eight phones of the then CBI director Alok Verma and his family members were put in the list of devices targeted for snooping using Pegasus spyware by an unknown Indian agency soon after he was divested of the coveted charge on October 23, 2018, The Wire reported on Thursday.

    Along with Verma, phones of his second-in-command Special Director Rakesh Asthana, against whom he had registered a corruption case on October 21, 2018, and the then Joint Director A K Sharma were also put on the list for surveillance using sophisticated malware, it said.

    According to the report, eight phones belonging to Verma family, including three of him along with those of his wife, daughter and son-in-law were put in the list of persons of interest targeted by the Israeli snooping malware.

    All these numbers, including that of Asthana and Sharma, remained in the list for a short period till Verma retired from service on January 31, 2019.

    They were taken off the list in February, 2019, it said.

    Israeli group NSO insists the leaked database accessed by French non-profit media organisation Forbidden Stories has nothing to do with it or its software Pegasus which is being used by “vetted governments”.

    The government and the ruling BJP have dismissed the Pegasus Project reports as concocted and evidence-less.

    Law and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, whose own phone number was among those listed as compromised, said in a statement in Parliament on Thursday that the reports are “attempt to malign the Indian democracy and its well-established institutions”.

    According to The Wire, which is one of the 15 international media organisations with whom the database was shared, Verma declined to participate in the story hence forensic examination of his phones, the only way to establish if they were successfully infected with the snooping malware, could not be carried out.

    Questions seeking reactions of Verma, Asthana and Sharma remained unanswered.

    While Verma and Sharma have retired from the service, Asthana is the chief of Border Security Force which guards the sensitive borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh.

    Verma and Asthana were sent on forced leave in an unprecedented order of the Centre in late night of October 23, 2018.

    The order divesting Verma of CBI director’s post, which has a two-years fixed tenure, was issued nearly three months before he was scheduled to complete his tenure on January 31, 2019.

    The controversial directive which was reversed by the Supreme Court later was issued two days after Verma booked Asthana in corruption charges and conducted searches.

    Later, Asthana was cleared of all charges by the CBI which probed allegations against him.

    On Sunday, an international media consortium reported that over 300 verified mobile phone numbers, including of two ministers, over 40 journalists, three opposition leaders and one sitting judge besides scores of businesspersons and activists in India could have been targeted for hacking through the spyware.

    A French non-profit media group Forbidden Stories accessed a leaked database comprising 50,000 numbers believed to be linked to potential targets of Pegasus.

    The database was shared with 15 other media partners across the globe including The Wire in India.

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  • CBI vs CBI: Delhi HC allows Alok Verma to inspect case file relating to Rakesh Asthana

    CBI Director Alok Verma and Joint Director A K Sharma were on Wednesday allowed by the Delhi High Court to inspect in the CVC’s office the case file relating to FIR against the agency’s Special Director Rakesh Asthana. Verma was asked by Justice Najmi Waziri to go to Central Vigilance Commission’s office on Thursday after his counsel said there are allegations of mala fide against him in Asthana’s petition. He also allowed Sharma to go to the CVC’s office on Friday for inspecting the files.

    Regarding proceedings against Asthana, who has sought quashing of an FIR against him in a bribery case, the court extended till December 7 its order directing the CBI to maintain status quo.

    The court was hearing separate pleas of Asthana, Kumar and middleman Manoj Prasad seeking quashing of the FIR against them.

    In the previous hearing, the counsel for Sharma said he had incriminating evidence against Asthana and would place it before the court in a sealed cover, to which the court had asked him to file it before the CBI. The probe agency will then place the documents before it.

  • “CBI Top 2 Like Caesar’s Wife, Must Be Beyond Suspicion”: Arun Jaitley

    The Supreme Court order for a time-bound inquiry against exiled CBI chief Alok Verma was an “extremely positive development”, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said, adding that it was in the best interest of the country that the truth comes out. “All officers of the CBI, particularly the top two, are like Caesar’s wife and must be beyond suspicion,” Mr Jaitley said, justifying the government’s move to send Mr Verma and his deputy Rakesh Asthana on leave after they accused each other of corruption in an unprecedented public feud.

    “In order to ensure fairness, the Supreme Court has appointed a retired judge to oversee the investigation,” Mr Jaitley said, adding that the government is “only interested in maintaining professionalism, the image and the institutional integrity of the CBI.”

    He said that recent developments have “eroded the reputation of the CBI” and the government’s move came in “larger national interest”.

    “The Supreme Court’s direction setting a two-week time frame would further strengthen the fairness criteria of the investigations…and the appointment of a retired judge would ensure a fair inquiry,” the Finance Minister said.

    The expression ‘Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion’ – drawn from a 16th-century Shakespearean drama – is used to imply that people in high positions must have impeccable integrity.

    Mr Jaitley’s remarks came as opposition parties led by Congress President Rahul Gandhi protested outside the CBI headquarters in Delhi against the government’s move and what it called attempts to control and undermine the investigating agency. Mr Gandhi and other leaders also walked into a police station and turned themselves in.

    The Congress said the Modi government’s “sinister attempt” to capture the CBI through “lackeys” has fallen flat after the Supreme Court’s order that also barred interim director M Nageswar Rao from taking any major policy decision.

    “Truth prevails in Supreme Court. Modi Government’s sinister attempt to capture CBI through lackeys falls flat. A slap in face of tyrants who wanted to pin the last nail in CBI’s independence. CVC can’t act as Modi Government’s pawn but would be supervised by a SC judge to act fairly,” Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said on Twitter.