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A day after Gujarat cadre IPS officer and number 2 in the CBI Rakesh Asthana was named in an FIR for allegedly accepting bribe, a CBI team landed in Vadodara on Sunday to get details of a lavish wedding ceremony of his daughter at the Laxmi Vilas Palace.Last year, a PIL filed by petitioner Prashant Bhushan in the Supreme Court raising doubts over Asthana’s integrity, which was later dismissed, had alleged an association between Asthana, then CBI director and owners of Sterling Biotech/Sandesaras, whom the CBI was investigating for alleged payoffs. The PIL alleged that the Sterling Biotech group had hosted an opulent wedding of Asthana’s daughter at Vadodara’s Laxmi Vilas Palace.Unconfirmed sources said CBI team that arrived at Vadodara questioned caterers, wedding planner, decorators and those connected with hosting the wedding at the palace. Besides, the owner of Laxmi Vilas Palace Maharaja Samarjitsinh Gaekwad was also questioned and so was the owner of Hotel Surya Palace Piyush Shah that had hosted Asthana’s wedding guests. Sources claimed that about 16 businessmen including the two mentioned above were questioned.Two to three teams had questioned different persons separately. Sources claimed that those connected with the wedding were asked selective questions. They were asked randomly about the number of persons who attended the wedding, amount paid to them and mode of payment, whether payments were made in cash or cheque and who had made the payments. The wedding that was reportedly held in November 2016, had several IPS, IAS officials and even politicians attending the wedding. Sources claims that one-day cost of hosting a wedding at the Palace was hefty and the wedding was held in grand style. Unconfirmed sources said each person was questioned for about 10 minutes and the total exercise was completed in three to four hours. The PIL filed by Bhushan had also alleged that Asthana’s Ankush was employed with Sterling Biotech, reportedly a controversial firm involved in payoffs, as assistant manager in 2011-12.The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against its own Special Director Rakesh Asthana of accepting bribe to settle a case of meat exporter Moin Qureshi, who is facing multiple cases of money laundering and corruption, the agency said on Sunday.CBI Spokesperson Abhishek Dayal said the CBI on Saturday carried out searches at the house of a CBI official Devender, who is the Investigating Officer in the Qureshi case, in Delhi. “The CBI has registered an FIR against Rakesh Asthana, Devender and two private persons, Manoj Prasad and Someshwar Prasad, on a complaint by Satish Sana Baby of Hyderabad,” the CBI said. The agency said the amended provision of the Prevention of Corruption Act, which mandates approval for initiating probe, won’t apply in the case against Asthana.The country’s top probe agency alleged that bribes were taken at least five times in December 2017 and October 2018.The CBI said it has got statement of Satish Sana recorded under Section 164 Cr.PC twice on October 4 and October 20, which completely “corroborates” allegation against Asthana and others. Someshwar, CBI alleged, handled Asthana’s investments.Asthana, a 1984 batch Indian Police Service officer of Gujarat cadre, is accused of accepting a bribe of Rs 2 crore from a businessman who was under probe in the Qureshi case in order to “wreck” the investigation. The case was being examined by a special investigation team (SIT) headed by Asthana. Sources said the CBI lodged the FIR earlier this week after the arrest of a middleman Manoj, who has given a confessional statement before a magistrate confirming the payment of Rs 2 crore to Asthana.Manoj has reportedly admitted that he had paid the bribe on behalf of Qureshi, who is being probed by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on charges of money laundering for a host of public servants. Qureshi was arrested by the ED in August last year under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Apart from Asthana, the CBI has also named Samant Kumar Goel, Special Director of India’s external intelligence agency RAW, but not an accused.Theallegations and FIR against Asthana come amid a feud between the latter and CBI director Alok Verma. Asthana has alleged that Verma is meddling with the corruption case he is investigating against former Union Railway’s Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. Last month, the CBI had come out in the open to call Asthana’s complaint against Verma before the CVC as ‘intimidation’ of the officers probing the former’s role in at least six cases. Verma retires next year. A 1984-batch Gujarat cadre officer, Asthana has headed several cases including the AgustaWestland scam and probe against Vijay Mallya.He also headed an SIT probing the 2002 Godhra train burning case besides briefly serving as interim CBI chief two years ago. The rift within the CBI surfaced recently when the contents of a few letters, reportedly signed by another Gujarat cadre IPS officer (1987 batch) AK Sharma, became public. Sharma is believed to be close to BJP President Amit Shah. One of those letters said that Asthana could not be consulted for appointment of CBI officers as his role was under the agency’s scanner. Another letter had claimed that he cannot represent the agency in the absence of Director Alok Verma despite being the second in command.