Rakesh Asthana (born 22 July 1961) is an Indian police officer, known for investigating various cases, including embezzlement, bribery, and bombings. He joined the

Indian Police Service The Indian Police Service (IPS) is a civil service under the All India Services. It replaced the Indian Imperial Police in 1948, a year after India became Partition of India, independent from the British Empire. Along with the Indian Admini ...

(IPS) in 1984 and was part of the Gujarat cadre. He served as the Special Director at the

Central Bureau of Investigation The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the domestic crime investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and gover ...

(CBI). In July 2021, he was appointed as the Police Commissioner of Delhi. Asthana retired from the Indian Police Service (IPS) on 31 July 2022 after receiving a one-year extension.

Early life and education

Rakesh Asthana received his education at Netarhat Residential School, Netarhat and St. John's College, Agra.

Career

Rakesh Asthana investigated the Fodder Scam, a corruption scandal that involved the

embezzlement Embezzlement (from Anglo-Norman, from Old French ''besillier'' ("to torment, etc."), of unknown origin) is a type of financial crime, usually involving theft of money from a business or employer. It often involves a trusted individual taking ...

of roughly ₹9.4 billion in

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

. He filed a charge sheet against

Lalu Prasad Yadav Lalu Prasad (born 11 June 1948) is an Indian politician who served as the chief minister of Bihar from 1990 to 1997 with a brief interruption in 1995 and as the union minister for Railways from 2004 to 2009. He is the founder and president o ...

in 1996, leading to Lalu's first arrest in 1997. Asthana caught Director General of Mines Safety (DGMS) taking bribes in

Dhanbad Dhanbad is the second-most populated city in the Indian state of Jharkhand after Jamshedpur and a major financial hub of Jharkhand. In terms of economy, Dhanbad has the largest economy in the state of Jharkhand and it is often referred to as th ...

. By that time, this was the first case of its kind in the whole country, when the officers of the Director-General had come under arrest. Rakesh investigated the 2008 Ahmedabad bombings. Asthana had also examined the case of Asaram Bapu and his son Narayan Sai. The absconding Narayan Sai was caught on the Haryana-Delhi border.

As Police Commissioner of Delhi

On 27 July 2021, four days before his superannuation, he was appointed as the Commissioner of Police, Delhi, succeeding Balaji Shrivastava who was acting as the

Commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to incl ...

since the retirement of S.N. Shrivastava.

Controversy

The NGO, Common Cause, had approached Court challenging Asthana’s appointment as Special Director on the grounds that his name had figured in a 2011 diary seized from Sterling Biotech – a company being probed by the CBI for money laundering. Asthana was not named in the FIR but was presumably the subject of an ongoing investigation by his own agency. Asthana was entangled in a bribery controversy along with Alok Verma, Special Director CBI in a corruption scandal; both accused each other of bribery and subsequently asked to go on leave by the Government, on the recommendation of the Central Vigilance Commission. Verma and Asthana were sent on leave on the recommendation of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) by the Government of India. Verma appealed to the Supreme Court of India, while Asthana went to the Delhi High Court. The Supreme Court canceled the decision to send Verma on leave, and he was reinstated as the CBI director two months later with the instruction not to take any major decisions until the Selection Committee decides his fate over the corruption charges. The investigation by the CBI has been completed, giving Rakesh Asthana a clean chit, which was accepted by the Special CBI Court.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Asthana, Rakesh 1961 births Living people Indian Police Service officers Central Bureau of Investigation Netarhat Residential School alumni People from Ranchi Directors of the Central Bureau of Investigation Commissioners of Delhi Police