Rakesh Asthana is involved in a bitter feud with his boss CBI director Alok Verma. Both have been sent on leave (PTI file photo)

The never-seen-before feud within the Central Bureau of Investigation -- between Alok Verma and Rakesh Asthana, who until recently were the agency's No. 1 and No. 2 officers respectively -- has brought into sharp focus a wedding that was organised in Vadodara, Gujarat in 2016.

The wedding was of Rakesh Asthana's daughter and is among the reasons the police officer finds himself in the eye of a storm.

Asthana, a CBI special director who has been sent on leave, managed to avail of various "complimentary" services for his daughter's wedding, documents seized by the Central Bureau of Investigation and accessed by India Today TV show.

The services included food catering for the sangeet ceremony, the venue of the wedding and hotel bookings.

And, certain services that were not "complimentary" were availed of at nominal rates. For example rooms were booked at a top Vadodara hotel at Rs 175 a night.

All this and more is information recovered by the CBI as part of its investigation against Rakesh Asthana.

It would be pertinent to note that the investigation is now being carried out by an entirely fresh team after the government late Tuesday night sent both CBI director Alok Verma and special director Rakesh Asthana on leave.

The two top officers of the CBI are part of a bitter feud that has been making headlines almost every day. While the CBI has accused Asthana of accepting a bribe of around Rs 3 crore, he in turn has accused Alok Verma of being corrupt and of hatching a conspiracy to frame him.

It was due to these allegations and counter-allegations that the government decided to send the top two CBI officers on leave. Joint director Nageshwar Rao has taken charge as the interim CBI director and he has set up an entirely new team to probe the charges against Asthana.

The allegations against Alok Verma, on the other hand, are likely to be probed by the Central Vigilance Commission, which oversees the CBI's investigations.

THE WEDDING

Documents accessed by India Today TV show that the CBI currently has in its possession evidence that raises suspicions about the finances that went into planning the wedding of Asthana's daughter.

The wedding took place in Vadodara on November 24 and 25, 2016. Incidentally, Asthana was the Commissioner of Police of Vadodara from 2008 to 2011.

From 2011 to early 2016 Asthana was the Commissioner of Police in Surat. He was then deputed to the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is where he was when his daughter's wedding took place in November 2016.

The CBI in its investigations so far has recovered several documents.

SANGEET

Two documents deal with the sangeet ceremony that was held on November 24.

The sangeet took place at a farm house owned by Chetan Sandesara, one of the directors of Sterling Biotech, which is accused of duping banks of several thousands of crores.

The food catering at the event was provided by Hotel Express Towers, which did not charge a paisa for its services.

"We were only supplying food at the event and no other services were provided. The function was done on complimentary basis so no bill was raised for the Sangeet Sandhya held on 24/11/2016," the hotel told the CBI in a signed document.

WEDDING VENUE

Another document relates to the venue of the wedding, which was on the lush lawns of the Laxmi Vilas Palace, the home of the erstwhile royal family of Baroda, the Gaekwads.

The Laxmi Vilas Palace has told the CBI that it provided the venue to the Asthana family on a complimentary basis.

HOTEL ROOMS AND TRAVEL

Another set of documents deals with the hotel rooms booked for the Asthana wedding party.

One hotel -- the Sun City Club and Resort -- offered 35 rooms to the Asthana family free of cost. "We provided the rooms on complimentary basis. As our resort was new at that time - even before we had launched the resort - we found it as an honour to host such prestigious guests to make them stay at our property and thus we offered it all on complimentary basis," the club told the CBI.

Another document shows that 19 more rooms were booked at the Express Hotel Tower for the Asthana wedding party. The rooms were booked at a nominal rate of Rs 175 a night per guest. During the same period, the hotel charged Rs 2,900 to Rs 3,200 a room a night from guests who were not part of the wedding party.

Finally, another document shows that Rakesh Asthana and his family travelled by road and air for the wedding. The travel arrangements were made by a company called Travel Solutions and, the documents suggest, the money was paid by Sterling Biotech.

Rakesh Asthana was not immediately available for comment.

Government sources have told India Today that some other payments for the family weddings were indeed made through cheques and credit cards. Those documents were not immediately available.

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