CBI books its former chief AP Singh along with Moin Qureshi in a graft case
03:21PM Mon 20 Feb, 2017
NEW DELHI: In a significant development, the Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday named its former director AP Singh as an 'accused' along with controversial meat exporter Moin Qureshi in a case registered to probe alleged corruption.
Moin Akhtar Qureshi, who is also under probe by the Income Tax department and the Enforcement Directorate, is accused of operating as a middleman for several public servants including AP Singh.
Top CBI sources said that its teams also conducted raids on the residence of former CBI director, who headed the agency between 2010 and 2012 when the UPA government was in power.
AP Singh was instrumental in the arrest of former telecom minister A Raja, Suresh Kalmadi and several corporates and public servants in the 2G spectrum scam and the CWG scam. He also finalized the long pending Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case.
However, upon his retirement, it was revealed in an income tax evasion probe against Qureshi that he and former agency chief regularly interacted "on daily basis" on Blackberry Messenger (BBM) platform.
The government had, in fact, informed the Supreme Court in 2014 that there were "astonishing state of affairs" between former CBI director AP Singh and meat exporter Moin Qureshi.
The present case registered under sections 8, 9, 13 (2) and 13 (1) (d) of prevention of corruption act, which deal with corrupt activities by public servants and private persons using public servants in lieu of any favour, has been registered on a reference given by Enforcement Directorate (ED) chief Karnal Singh.
Along with Moin Qureshi and AP Singh, CBI has named in its FIR a Hyderabad based businessman Pradeep Koneru, son of Rajendra Prasad Koneru, a co-accused in a case of disproportionate assets filed by the agency against Andhra politician Jaganmohan Reddy.
Koneru's BBM messages with Moin Qureshi had suggested that he had requested meetings with then CBI chief AP Singh for discussing bail and discharge matters of his father and brother Madhu Koneru.
The CBI has also named Aditya Sharma, an employee of Moin Qureshi and unknown persons in the FIR.
After registering the FIR, the agency conducted raids at the residences of AP Singh, Koneru in Hyderabad and Chennai and also of Moin Qureshi.
The CBI has alleged that Moin Qureshi has been working as a middleman for "certain public servants" and that the analysis of records discloses commission of cognizable offences.
It has been alleged that AP Singh, who headed the CBI, shared information with Moin Qureshi and also helped the latter in many cases.
In a report filed in the Supreme Court in October 2014, on the basis of an IT department probe, Attorney General Mukul Rohtagi had said, ""The report reveals an astonishing state of affairs (that is) wholly unbecoming and revealing the shocking conduct of a former CBI director, now a member of the UPSC. He was in regular touch with Qureshi and there were BBM exchanges between them on a daily basis and that too in code language. Many of the messages clearly revealed plans to save the accused in many cases".
Last year, Moin Qureshi had managed to leave the country without informing any authority despite having a Look Out Circular (LoC) against him. He, however, came back in few days.
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