Congress communication department head Randeep Surjewala. Congress communication department head Randeep Surjewala.

Hours after CBI Director Alok Verma was removed, the Congress slammed the government for the move amid an escalating feud between him and his deputy Rakesh Asthana. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala accused the BJP government of burring the “last nail” into the independence of CBI. He wondered if Verma was “sacked” for his keenness to probe the “layers of corruption” in the Rafale scam and sought an answer from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Taking to Twitter, Surjewala said, “systematic dismantling and denigrating of CBI is now complete. Once a premier investigating agency, PM ensures that CBI’s integrity, credibility & reliability is buried & dead.”

Scared of the Rafale Scam probe, Modi ji is killing India’s premier investigation agency. Officers are being removed in hordes and fascism prevails! Can’t save the sinking ‘Sultanate’ by it! Modiji, why are you so scared of the Rafale probe? चोर की दाढ़ी में तिनका? 5/n pic.twitter.com/SRTavSiEaq — Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) October 24, 2018

Attacking the prime minister, Surjewal said Modi has sought to achieve surreptitiously and clandestinely what he cannot do directly by sacking the CBI director”.

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“PM Modi has demonstrated the true colour of his infamous ‘Modi Made Gujarat Model’ by this cloak-and-dagger mugging of CBI. Has the CBI Director been sacked for his keenness to probe the layers of corruption in Rafale Scam? Isn’t the rest a shoddy cover-up? Let PM answer!” the Congress leader said.

Read | Alok Verma removed as CBI Director

Habitual and perpetual misuse of the CBI by the government and the BJP to “tamper fair investigation of serious criminal cases” is the reason for this unfathomable mess, Surjewala alleged further.

3/n

PM Modi has demonstrated the true colour of his infamous ‘Modi Made Gujarat Model’ by this cloak-and-dagger mugging of CBI. Has the CBI Director been sacked for his keenness to probe the layers of corruption in Rafale Scam? Isn’t the rest a shoddy cover up? Let PM answer! pic.twitter.com/80ckyFiOJX — Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) October 24, 2018

“Illegality, Interference & unconstitutionality of Modi Govt today has hit a ‘new low’. Speaking Truth to Power has become a crime under this dictatorial regime,” he added.

In a midnight move, the prime minister-led Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) removed Alok Verma as the CBI chief and replaced him with Joint Director M Nageshwar Rao. “The ACC has approved that during the period of the subsistence of the aforesaid interim measure, cited in reference above, M Nageshwar Rao, IPS, presently working as Joint Director, CBI, shall look after duties and functions of Director CBI and shall take over the duties and functions with immediate effect,” the official statement said.

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