In a curious turn of events, the Enforcement Directorate has arrested Hyderabad-based businessman Sana Satish Babu, the complainant whose allegations triggered a war among the CBI top brass last year, in connection with a money-laundering probe against controversial meat exporter Moin Qureshi and others.
Babu was grilled for a few hours and was taken into custody as he was “not cooperating” in the probe. Following Babu’s complaint, the CBI headed by Alok Verma then had registered a criminal FIR on charges of corruption against its former special director Rakesh Asthana last year.
Babu was earlier summoned as a witness in the ED money laundering case but with the latest development, he becomes an accused.
Babu was arrested late on Friday night under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as he was “not cooperating” in the probe, officials said.
His links with Qureshi, an accused in a CBI and ED case, as also in certain financial transactions, are suspected to be dubious by the agency which will be probed during his custodial interrogation.
He is suspected to be involved in the bribery case and had made payments to Qureshi which are illegitimate, sources claimed.
After submitting a written complaint against Asthana to the CBI, Babu had recorded a statement under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) before a Magistrate. Following his statement under Section 164, the CBI then under Verma registered an FIR against Asthana.
In his statement to the CBI, Babu had said he paid a bribe of Rs 2 crore to Asthana to be spared from any adverse action in the investigation linked to Qureshi. The money was paid over a 10-month period -- starting from December 2017.
Babu was being investigated by a special investigation team (SIT) of the CBI, headed by Asthana, when he had accused him for accepting bribes.
Taking cognisance of the complaint filed by Babu, the CBI had registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Asthana and others, including a few other agency officials.
Later, Asthana had accused then CBI Director Verma of being corrupt and filed a complaint against him with counter allegations of shielding Babu and not allowing the SIT to go against him.
Asthana, in an exhaustive letter to the Cabinet Secretary on August 24 last year, had given a list of 10 instances of alleged corruption by Verma in which it was alleged that Sana paid the CBI chief Rs 2 crore to get clean chit in the case.
The ED had registered a criminal case under the anti-money laundering law against Qureshi in 2017 for alleged corruption in connivance with Government officials. It had also arrested Qureshi as part of the probe and attached his assets. Former CBI Director AP Singh is also being probed in this case by the ED.