CBI

According to sources, CJI Ramana pointed out the top court's guidelines in the Prakash Singh case of March 2019, which made it clear that no officer with less than six months to retirement, should be appointed as police chief. The source said that the CJI Ramana was insistent on this point, and he also got support from Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha

A CBI source said, "CBI is trying to verify the reports for further necessary actions through formal and informal channels including Interpol." The remarks of the CBI came after the Commissioner of the Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda, Atlee Rodney, said the force is currently following up on the whereabouts of the Indian businessman who is rumoured to be missing at this time, local media antiguanewsroom.com reported.

According to sources familiar with the development, Jaiswal, a former Maharashtra DGP, is among the finalised candidates for the post of the CBI chief. The source said that his name can be announced soon. Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Naremdra Modi chaired a meeting with the Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to select the new CBI chief.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday evening discussed the names for the new CBI chief with Chowdhury and the Chief Justice of India, N.V. Ramana. "I was given 109 names on May 11, and today afternoon it was 10 and by the time the meeting began, it came down to six names," Chowdhury said in a dissent note, according to sources, adding that the approach of the DoPT is "highly objectionable".

The three members of the Select Committee discussed several names for the top CBI post for a fixed term of two years. The meeting started around at 6 p.m. and lasted for over 90 minutes at the Prime Minister's residence here. Awasthi was appointed as the Director General of Police (DGP) in Uttar Pradesh in March last year.

The CBI got an acting Director in the form of Praveen Sinha after the term of R.K. Shukla ended on February 3. Several officers of the 1985 and 1986 batch are reportedly in the race for the top post, including Y.C. Modi, who is currently the chief of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), and 1985 batch IPS officer Hitesh Chandra Awasthi.

The source said that it was alleged that AB Exports, an alleged shell company, had bought a property in New Friends Colony for nearly Rs 5 crore in December 2007 while its actual circle rate was Rs 30 crore at that time. The transaction for buying the property was allegedly funded by DLF Home Developers and routed through Lexis Infotech and a few other shell companies.

CBI spokesperson R.C. Joshi said, "The CBI has registered a case on the basis of references from Ministry of Chemical and Fertilizer and also on other information, against Awasthi, then MD and CEO, Indian Farmers Fertilizer Co-operative Ltd (IFFCO), Gahlaut, then MD of IPL, Amol Awasthi and Anupam Awasthi, both sons of then IFFCO MD and CEO and also promoters of Catalyst Business Associates Pvt Ltd, Vivek Gahlaut, son of then MD of IPL Gahlaut, Pankaj Jain, Jyoti Group of Companies and Rare Earth Group, Dubai, Sanjay Jain, brother of Jain and also President of Jyoti Trading Corporation and beneficial owner of other entities of Jyoti Group, Amrinder Dhari Singh, Sr Vice President of Jyoti Trading Corporation, Duba

The CBI accused the trio of misconduct and creating obstruction in the investigation. A division bench presided by Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal fixed the matter for hearing on Wednesday. The CBI in their petition prayed for transfer of the case raising concerns about the possibility of carrying out investigation peacefully in the state.

A senior ED official related to probe told IANS, "A case of money laundering has been registered under PMLA against Deshmukh." The ED action comes almost a fortnight after the CBI booked the NCP leader into the allegations of misuse of office and corruption on April 24.