The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted the Central Bureau of Investigation two more months to complete the inquiry into bribery allegations against former agency director Rakesh Asthana, PTI reported.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru, however, said the court will not give any more time to finish probe in the case.

Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee, representing the CBI, said Letters Rogatory has been sent to the United States and United Arab Emirates. He said they were yet to receive the response from the countries because of which the investigation could not be completed. He urged the court to grant three more months to complete the probe.

On May 31, the court had granted the CBI four months to finish its investigation in the Asthana case. The CBI had sought more time after the extension expired.

The agency had submitted a status report in a sealed cover with all the progress made in the investigation so far.

In September, CBI officer Satish Dagar, who was investigating the case had applied for voluntary retirement. Former CBI Director M Nageswara Rao made Dagar the head of the team investigating the Asthana case, in October last year. In July this year, Rao was shunted out of the CBI and appointed the director general of fire services, civil defence and home guard.

The case

In January, the Delhi High Court had rejected a plea by Asthana, Deputy Superintendent of Police Devender Kumar and an alleged middleman Manoj Prasad to quash the first information report the CBI had filed in the case.

Asthana and Devendra Kumar, along with middleman Manoj Prasad, are under the CBI lens for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 2 crore in exchange for a clean chit to Hyderabad-based businessman Sathish Babu Sana, who was being investigated in the Moin Qureshi corruption case. Qureshi is accused in multiple graft cases.

Asthana has been accused of receiving kickbacks and extorting money from businessman Sana. Asthana, in turn, accused former CBI Director Alok Verma of trying to falsely implicate him, and levelled corruption charges against him. The Centre subsequently sent both Asthana and Verma on compulsory leave in October last year.

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