It's a day of heavy speculations. Everyone has his/her call on who would be appointed the next CBI chief.

 

But for Rakesh Asthana (IPS:1984:GJ), it's a day of unmitigated tragedy. If he could have only avoided the conflict that he chose to fight squarely with his boss Alok Verma, today he would have been a clear choice. 

 

Life and fate don't move in a straight line; they rather traverse a zigzag trajectory. He might say he was constrained to take up the fight. But every fighter, as sharp as a cat, knows the value of quick retreat. Until October 22, 2018, almost everyone had accepted for real that Asthana was the first and the foremost choice for the top CBI job. On that day, however, Asthana's life and fate changed forever. Like Prakash Mishra (IPS:1977:OR) was targeted in 2014, Asthana fell victim to a neat conspiracy orchestrated from within and outside CBI.

 

Of course, Asthana would have known what he was up against. He had been non-sparing and quite successful in handling cases. Unlike most of the high-profile CBI cases that end in acquittals by the courts, the cases handled by Rakesh Asthana always ended in convictions. Corrupt politicians were damned scared of him.

 

So, it is argued that if he had sat quietly and waited patiently when his detractors laid the trap for him, he would have still come out with the flying colors.

But that was not to be.

 

Let's recall some of the events at the CBI.

 

During the current NDA regime, S Javeed Ahmed (IPS:1984:UP) was the first to be pre-maturely repatriated from the CBI immediately after the Govt formation, whereas Rakesh Asthana and Y C Modi (IPS:1984:AM) were the first two to be inducted into CBI as ADG.

 

Y C Modi was later sent to the NIA as DG whereas Asthana was made CBI Chief as an ad-hoc arrangement between November 2016 and January 2017. For almost three long months, Asthana was acting CBI chief and acquired experience in running the show. The NaMO administration also signaled that between Y C Modi & Asthana, it considered Asthana a better candidate for the top job in CBI.

 

There was a reason for that.

 

Indianmandarins has learned from several senior officers that the CBI has been suffering from a syndrome of a large number of acquittal cases. In most of the top profile cases, the rate of acquittal has been high but cases investigated and charge-sheets filed by Rakesh Asthana had almost zero acquittal. He was considered one of the best investigative hands among the present lot.

 

Yet, when it came to self-preservation, he failed to figure out the conspiracy and failed to stave off the efforts of corporate lobbyists who turned their illegal wars against him by filing several cases and thus maligned his reputations. Even if he gets cleared by the courts later, he would have already suffered an irreparable loss to his career.

It seems he is fated like Prakash Mishra who, despite bright prospects, got shot down as CBI chief candidate by a frivolous complaint filed against him by his political boss and which, though, could not be sustained in the court later.