Satish Babu Sana is at heart of ongoing tussle, apart from CM Ramesh, Mohammed Ali Shabbir
The vortex of internal war in the premier investigation agency, Central Bureau of Investigation, is threatening to suck in many prominent political figures of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
While a controversial businessman from Andhra Pradesh, Satish Babu Sana, is at the heart of the ongoing war between the two top officials of CBI — Director Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana — over an alleged bribery case within the agency, many more names from the two Telugu States have cropped up. They include CM Ramesh, Telugu Desam Party MP and a close associate of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, and Mohammed Ali Shabbir, senior Congress leader in Telangana.
Another interesting name coming up in the context of raging controversy is that of former Joint Director of CBI VV Lakshminayrana, who recently took voluntary retirement from service to enter active politics.
Different stories are doing the rounds about each of these key players whose profile make interesting reading:
Satish Babu Sana: He has emerged as a pivotal figure in the entire sordid drama as it was based on his complaint that the CBI registered FIR against its number 2 officer Special Director Rakesh Asthana. Sana reportedly told the CBI he paid a bribe of Rs 2 crore to Alok Verma to be “spared” in a case under CBI investigation. Asthana complained to the Cabinet Secretariat that Sana had reached a settlement with the CBI Director Alok Verma to avoid his arrest through TDP member of Rajya Sabha and industrialist CM Ramesh.
Sana has now become a complainant against Asthana and accused that at his behest Sana’s statement was “falsified” by Deputy SP Devender Kumar to “frame” the CBI boss in meat exporter Moin Qureshi case.
The Hyderabad-based industrialist, Sana, is quite an influential and well connected figure. From his humble start as an employee of Government electricity department at Kakinada — a job he got on compassionate ground after the death of his father — Sana went places and today he is a director of half a dozen companies and was closely associated with several top politicians and people from Telugu film industries. List of his friends in high places include late Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy, his son YS Jaganmohan Reddy, present Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, KVP Ramachandra Rao, MP, CM Ramesh, noted film producer D Suresh and prominent industrialist Nimmagadda Prasad and controversial meat exporter Moin Qureshi, who is now facing charges of tax evasion and illegal transfer of money.
It was in a money laundering case related to Moin Qureshi that Sana was facing a CBI investigation. The CBI FIR booked against Asthana says that a Dubai-based middle man had paid Rs 3 crore as a bribe to a conduit named Somesh Prasad for settling the case in his favour.
Controversies are not new for Satish Babu Sana. Earlier, he was under CBI scrutiny in one of the cases of disproportionate assets of YS Jaganmohan Reddy. It was alleged that the YSR Government had allocated 22,000 acre land to industrialist Nimmagadda Prasad in Guntur-Prakasham belt and in quid pro quo the industrialist made an investment of Rs 854 crores in Jagan’s companies. In its chargesheet in this case, the CBI had said that Sana had paid Rs 50 lakh to Moin Qureshi to settle the case and appoint the VV Lakshminarayna as the CBI Joint Director in Hyderabad. Later Lakshminarayana had led the investigations into cases against Jagan.
But Sana denied the allegation and said that he had made a legal investment in Moin Qureshi’s meat export company.
CM Ramesh: Industrialist-turned-politician CM Ramesh was recently in the news when the Income Tax department and Enforcement Directorate carried out raids against his companies and claimed financial irregularities in his record.
Now his name has again cropped up in the context of infighting in the CBI. While Asthana alleged that he mediated on behalf of Sana, Ramesh has alleged that there was a high-level conspiracy hatched by BJP president Amit Shah to frame him.
Ramesh, who is in Vienna along with his family, said in a statement that he was being targeted systematically by Amit Shah and the BJP Government ever since he contested and was elected to the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament. “I won despite opposition of Amit Shah and I was warned of consequences,” he said.
Ramesh also said the BJP Government was going after him because he took up the case of steel plant in Kadapa and sat on a hunger strike to press the issue.
“The allegation that I mediated between the CBI Director and Sana is fabricated and baseless,” he said, adding that the BJP is trying to suffocate the TDP leaders.
Mohammed Ali Shabbir: Shabbir is presently the Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council and is likely to contest Assembly elections. His name was mentioned in the purported statement Sana gave to the CBI alleging that Shabbir had accompanied him to the CBI office in Delhi to lodge a complaint against Asthana and Deputy SP Devendar Kumar.
Shabbir strongly denied allegation that he visited the CBI office with Sana. Interestingly Shabbir’s name already figures in the Enforcement Directorate chargesheet in which it was claimed that Shabbir and Moin Qureshi had visited the CBI office to help Hyderabad-based jeweller Sakesh Gupta of MBS jewellers.
Shabbir said he did not receive any notice from the CBI but confirmed that he knew both Sakesh Gupta and Sana.