Congress takes CBI war to street, Rahul Gandhi to lead protests

Amid the battle in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Congress president Rahul Gandhi has announced that he will lead the protest outside the investigative agency's headquarters in Delhi today.

Gandhi took to Twitter and said that outside offices of the CBI nationwide, the Congress party will protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's alleged disgraceful attempt to prevent an investigation into the alleged Rafale scam by "removing" the CBI Director Alok Verma.

"Tomorrow, outside CBI offices nationwide, the Congress party will protest the PM’s disgraceful attempt to prevent an investigation into the Rafale scam, by removing the CBI Chief. I will lead the protests outside CBI HQ in Delhi, at 11 AM," the Congress chief tweeted on Thursday.

However, CBI official spokesperson confirmed that Alok Verma will continue to remain CBI Director, Rakesh Asthana to remain Special Director. Rao will look after duties and functions of the CBI Director in the interim period till the time CVC looks into the allegations, it said.

M Nageshwar Rao was appointed as the interim director of the CBI on Wednesday with immediate effect. Rao, a 1986 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of Odisha cadre, was working as the Joint Director in the investigating agency.

The Centre's decision came after Asthana moved the Delhi High Court seeking the quashing of First Information Report (FIR) filed against him by the premier investigating agency of India. The court later ordered that no action would be taken against Asthana until next hearing, which is scheduled for October 29.

The CBI had filed an FIR against Asthana for allegedly accepting a bribe from a businessman, who was linked to Moin Akhtar Qureshi case. Asthana was heading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was probing Qureshi's case.