New Delhi, Oct 30 (IANS) Acting CBI Director M. Nageswara Rao on Tuesday described media reports citing irregularities in the investments made by his wife in a private company as "incorrect and untrue."
Rao, a 1986-batch IPS officer from Odisha, in a signed statement said all the transactions and investments made by him or his wife, Mannem Sandhya, have been given to the competent authorities, and everything has been mentioned in his annual property returns filed mandatorily with the government.
Rao's remarks came after a media report cited that his wife borrowed Rs 25 lakh from Angela Mercantile Pvt. Ltd. (AMPL) in the financial year ending March 2011, according to the records maintained by the Registrar of Companies.
Denying all reports, Rao gave a chronological order of events.
Rao said: "In 2010, my wife had borrowed Rs 25 lakh from AMPL, a company belonging to our longtime friend Praveen Agarwal for purchase of an immoveable property in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh".
He said the property was purchased jointly along with her cousin K. Ratna Babu, who is a well-known orthopedic surgeon in Guntur.
He said in 2011, his wife sold some 5.12-acre land from her inherited agricultural property for Rs 30.72 lakh. Two months later she sold 6.05-acre land for an amount of Rs 27.90 lakh and received a total amount of Rs 58.62 lakh as sale proceeds during 2011.
"This along with Rs 1.38 lakh from personal savings and a total of Rs 60 lakh was sent to Angela Mercantiles Private limited in 2011, who after deducting the loan amount retained the balance of Rs 35 lakh as investment," Rao said.
He said after a period of little less than three years, in July 2014, Angela Mercantiles Pvt Ltd returned to her a total amount of Rs 41,33,165 which included interest amount of Rs 6,33, 165.
"Therefore the question of any unaccounted money does not arise at all," he said, adding, "I deny all other reports as they are incorrect and untrue."
In a dramatic post-midnight action, the government on October 24 divested CBI chief Alok Verma of his charge and made Joint Director Rao the interim Director. Asthana was also divested of all his supervisory responsibilities.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) took the decision after Verma and Asthana accused each other of taking bribes.
On Friday the Supreme Court directed the Central Vigilance Commission to complete its probe into bribery allegations against Verma under the supervision of a retired apex court judge Justice A.K. Patnaik in two weeks while restraining interim chief from taking any policy or major decisions during the period.
Asthana, a 1984-batch Indian Police Service officer of the Gujarat cadre, is accused of accepting a bribe of Rs 2 crore from a businessman who was being investigated in the Qureshi case in order to "wreck" the investigation. The case was being examined by a special investigation team (SIT) headed by Asthana.
