The activities of a top Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officer, presently posted in Dubai, has come under the scanner of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) for his alleged relations with suspicious individuals, including those who are related to the ISI. His alleged links with Manoj Prasad, the Dubai-based businessman, who was arrested by the CBI on 16 October from Delhi for allegedly collecting bribes on behalf of former CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana in the Moin Qureshi case, are also being examined.
Prasad was arrested after Hyderabad-based businessman Sathish Babu Sana, while being interrogated by sleuths in the Moin Qureshi case, told the CBI that he had paid money to Prasad to get the CBI off his back. According to Babu, he was told by Manoj that the latter had ties with top CBI officials including Rakesh Asthana and the RAW. However, sources close to Asthana claimed that the statement made by Sana was totally “bogus” and Asthana has never even met Sana or Prasad, who runs an investment banking firm in Dubai that offers financial advisory services. Prasad is known in Dubai as the person who handles the portfolios of IAS and IPS officers who have made real estate investments in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The investments had seen a massive increase after the
November 2016 demonetisation.
The Sunday Guardian tried to reach out to Asthana seeking his version but he chose not to respond.
In his complaint, Babu, on the basis of which the agency booked Asthana along-with CBI DSP Devender Kumar, has also mentioned the names of two more IPS officers, Samant Goel and Parvez Hayat. Asthana and Goel are batchmates and share a very good friendship.
Goel, who is a 1984-batch Punjab-cadre IPS officer, is presently a Special Director in RAW and is seen as the guardian of this particular RAW officer who is posted in Dubai. This newspaper has accessed multiple pictures of the Dubai-based officer with Prasad and other individuals, who allegedly have links with Pakistan based ISI and have been entrusted to “cultivate” friends in Dubai.
Prasad’s name had first come into the picture in June when Danish Shah, another Dubai-based Indian businessman told The Sunday Guardian (I am not an ISI agent: Danish Shah, 28 June) that it was Prasad, along with the Dubai-based officer and Samant Goel, who had prepared a “false report” implicating senior ED officer Rajeshwar Singh of being in touch with suspected Dubai-based ISI agents, including Shah himself.
The Ministry of Finance included all this information in Para 7 on Page 2 of the RAW report placed before the Supreme Court during the hearing in the Aircel-Maxis case involving former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. The report was apparently placed with the intention of removing Singh from the court-monitored probe.
Quoting this RAW report, the Ministry Finance had stated that Singh was in touch with Shah, who as per the report was an ISI operative, and hence Singh should be removed from the investigation in the case.
Later, the RAW report was rubbished by ED director Karnail Singh in a press communiqué, following which Rajeshwar Singh wrote to the RAW director, stating that Singh was in touch with Shah regarding a case that the ED was investigating. Later, in an interview to this correspondent, Singh had said that he did the right thing while coming out in support of Rajeshwar.
The now jailed journalist Upendra Rai, who was closely associated with the Subrata Roy-led Sahara group, had earlier approached the Supreme Court seeking restraining order against Rajeshwar to stop him from investigating a corruption case against them. The Supreme Court in 2011, while deciding the case, had slapped contempt charges against the duo for their frivolous complaints. According to sources, Manoj Prasad is allegedly related to Subrata Roy.
Sources have told this newspaper that the Dubai-based RAW officer is also very close to people related to the now-shut Dubai-based Al-Zarooni Exchange, whose licence to exchange money was revoked in January 2016 after the US government found that it was laundering the money of the notorious Pakistani money financer Altaf Khanani, who was later arrested and is now in US prison.
“The man roams around with people like Manoj Prasad, with people who are taking care of the wealth of people like Pervez Musharraf invested in the Gulf and other individuals who are in the business of trapping Indian officials through the use of wealth and honey trap. He obviously enjoys the support of his senior bosses who are based in Delhi as he helps them in safeguarding their investments in Dubai,” a source alleged.