Officiating Director of CBI reportedly supports “Hindu causes”

New Delhi: On Wednesday, in a post-midnight drama, the Centre virtually sacked CBI Director Alok Verma in the midst of the war at the agency’s top, a decision that came under all-round fire from the opposition who termed it “the last nail in the independence” of the organisation.

The Supreme Court on Friday appointed one of its former judges, Justice A.K. Patnaik, to supervise the inquiry into the allegations against CBI Director Alok Verma while giving two weeks time to the CVC to complete the probe.

Making it clear that prolonging the inquiry was not in the nation’s best interest, a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Sanjay Krishan Kaul and Justice K.M. Joseph said the inquiry would be conducted on the allegation contained in the Cabinet Secretary’s note to the CVC.

As Attorney General K.K. Venugopal told the court that the inquiry should not be on the allegation against Verma but also on the allegations raised against CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana, Chief Justice Gogoi said: “We are only concerned with Verma.”

The court also asked the officiating Director M. Nageswara Rao not to take any policy or major decision except for routine ones.

It directed all decisions taken by Rao “after taking over charge till this hour” (when the order was being dictated) to be submitted to the court in a sealed envelope by November 12.

The court said it may reverse or retain Rao’s decisions.

According to the report published in The Economic Times, Mr. M. Nageswara Rao has been working with various organizations for “Hindu causes”, scraping laws which “favours minorities and discriminates Hindus” etc.

It is also reported that he attends events of India Foundation and Vivekananda International Foundation. He is close to RSS Pracharak-turned-BJP leader Ram Madhav.

Mr. Rao is reportedly among the seven persons who extended their help in formulating the Charter of Key Hindu Demands which would be presented to Prime Minister in the near future.

The origin of this charter was an event which was organised by Srijan Foundation at Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach), New Delhi. The event was reportedly attended by Mr. Rao.

As per the information on foundation’s website, the aim of the foundation is to rebuild and revitalise Indian civilisation and “change the anti-Hindu and anti-national narrative of the leftist-Marxist historians by telling Indian history from point of view of Indians”.

It may be noted that Mr. Rao completed his post graduation in chemistry from Osmania University. After post graduation, he undertook research at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras. Later, he joined IPS. Mr. Rao was a joint Direction of CBI before he was made interim Director.