New Delhi, Jan 14 (UNI) Charging that the Prime Minister-led Selection Committee's decision to remove Alok Verma from the CBI Director post was biased and motivated, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) on Monday demanded the removal of Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) from the post, citing the decision taken by the Committee was on the basis of his report.
In a statement, issued by its polit bureau, the party also demanded an enquiry into the manner in which the CVC dealt the CBI Director Mr Verma.
"The removal of Mr Verma was an arbitrary and shocking step. It was based on a report prepared by the CVC, which has since been shown to be weak on substantive proof about the allegations", the left party said and added that the CVC report is based on the allegations made by CBI officer, Rakesh Asthana, whose plea to quash the FIR against him was dismissed by High Court and ordered a time-bound investigation against him.
"Clearly, Mr Asthana has been found by the judiciary as facing prima facie charges", it said.
The Left party also pointed out that Justice (Retd.) A. K. Patnaik nominated by the Supreme Court to supervise the CVC enquiry on allegations against Mr Verma has publicly stated that the CVC enquiry found no evidence of corruption against Verma.
"Further he said that the findings of the CVC report are not his and, thus, distanced himself", the CPI(M) said.
It also said that more revelations about the 'questionable' role of CVC, K.V Chaudhary, in advocating Mr Asthana's case with the then CBI Director have also come into the public domain.
"All these facts show that the decision of the Prime Minister-led committee to remove Mr Verma, violating the principle of natural justice by denying him the right to defend himself, is biased and
motivated", the CPI(M) said.
Taking on Modi government, the Left party said that all these things confirm the suspicion that the Modi government was in an utmost hurry to remove Mr Verma in order to prevent probes into serious cases of corruption including 'Rafale scam'.
Earlier Congress party also demanded the removal of CVC from the post.
UNI KNA ADG 2019