Congress demands CVC's ouster

Stepping up its campaign, the Congress on Sunday demanded the ouster of Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) K V Chowdary following reports that he lobbied in favour Rakesh Asthana, the CBI Special Director, who is under the scanner of the probe agency.

“We seek the removal, the departure, the exit of the collaborator for violating the Constitution, the CVC. He must go. It is irrelevant whether he resigns or is sacked, but he must go,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters here.

Singhvi accused Chowdary of “acting as an ambassador of Asthana” and “doing a hatchet job for the Modi government to avoid a probe in the Rafale deal. CBI Director Alok Verma, who the Congress believes was all set to launch a preliminary inquiry into the Rafale deal, was shunted out from the probe agency on the basis of the report of the CVC.

The Congress attack came after reports had it that the Modi government had not shared Justice (retd) A K Patnaik's remarks on the CVC report on the corruption allegations against Verma. Justice Patnaik was appointed by the Supreme Court to oversee the CVC probe against Verma.

The government had sent both Verma and Asthana on leave on October 23 last year after both levelled corruption allegations against each other. Verma had moved the Supreme Court, which rapped the government for not following procedure. Verma was removed last week after a meeting of the Selection Committee that is solely empowered to decide on appointment, removal and transfer of the CBI Director.

“The sequence of events indicate that the CVC acted like a hatchet man of the government,” Singhvi said.

The Congress had said that the government stood exposed after Justice Patnaik claimed that he had not seen the commission's recommendations against Verma and not accorded his assent.

Last week, the Congress had demanded the CVC's ouster after the Supreme Court verdict quashed the government order on sending Verma on forced leave in October last year contending that the action was taken solely on a recommendation from the CVC.

“The CVC (Chowdary) should have resigned on his own after the verdict. The CVC Act clearly says it has no authority to appoint or dismiss the CBI (chief) but it acted as a government instrument,” Congress leader Anand Sharma said.