After charges of punching PP, CBI's internal probe on against Gujarat-cadre IPS officer

New Delhi: After a public prosecutor here alleged that a DIG-level officer in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had assaulted, slapped and punched him in the face in his office, the central probe agency has said it has initiated a "fact-finding inquiry" against the 2005-batch Gujarat cadre IPS officer Raghavendra Vatsa, who was only earlier this year empanelled at the DIG-level.

Vatsa was sent to the CBI on deputation in 2016 and has been there since.

While the prosecutor, Sunil Verma alleged that the DIG had assaulted for delaying the submission of a report pertaining to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's private secretary Rajinder Kumar, the DIG has now said he had also filed a complaint against the prosecutor a day before the alleged assault.

In fact, as reported, Verma had filed a police complaint in this regard and a Delhi court has now summoned Vatsa before it on October 19.

The public prosecutor has said in his complaint that he visited the Anti-Corruption Branch's DIG's office on October 9 around 10:30 am where the officer punched him in the face and asked him to sit and talk.

According to Verma, the DIG punched him for a delay in the framing of charges against Kejriwal's private secretary Kumar in connection with a corruption case against him. The agency had filed a charge-sheet against Kumar in the case nearly four years back.

The case had taken a political turn soon with allegations that there was corruption involved in the awarding of contracts between 2007 and 2015 resulting in a loss of Rs 12 crore to the Delhi government, according to the CBI's FIR in the matter.

DIG Vatsa had given an official complaint on October 8 to his seniors against Verma alleging misbehaviour, lackadaisical attitude towards work, absence from office, among others, sources said.

The next day, Verma came to the DIG's office where he allegedly misbehaved with Vatsa and was taken away by other officers present there, they added.

Verma gave completely different details of the incident in his complaint, which has been filed at the Lodhi Colony Police Station, the sources claimed.