Tanvi Sinha
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) gives clean chit to BSF and NCB chief Rakesh Asthana in Vadodara-based Sandesara brother’s Sterling Biotech bribery case.
Asthana is the front-runner for the next position of chief for CBI. He was under fire however recently when certain handwritten diaries by the Sandesara brothers showed that Asthana was the beneficiary for some unaccounted money.
The Sandesara brothers were amongst the other directors of the company Sterling Biotech who were declared fugitives by the Indian government in September 2020 in connection to a 5,383 crore INR bank fraud case.
The diaries had mentioned something called “RA” which was deduced to be Rakesh Asthana, him being the Police Commissioner of Vadodara and having familial relations with the brothers, however it has not been concluded that the “RA” mentioned referred to a Running Account.
This subsequently led to CBI closing probe set to see if Asthana had any illegal transactions with the Sandesara brothers, which had originally started when an ugly public fight transpired between ex-CBI chief Alok Verma and Mr. Asthana.