Four men found "snooping" outside ousted CBI Director Alok Verma's residence on Thursday morning are being questioned by police.
News agency PTI quted sources as saying the four men, who were stationed outside Verma's 2, Janpath residence from Wednesday night, were questioned and then taken away by police. They are being interrogated, the sources said.
All four men are said to be officers of the Intelligence Bureau (IB).
However, Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Madhur Verma denied that the police had detained four men and was questioning them.
The DCP said, "We do not have any information about this. Police have not detained anyone."
The suspects were intercepted when the Verma's chief security officer found them sitting in a car, said reports .
However, in an official statement, the Intelligence Bureau denied spying, saying its units are routinely deployed on a regular basis in sensitive areas".
"The IB is entrusted with the responsibility of collecting intelligence on situations that may affect, inter alia, public order and internal security. It's units are routinely deployed on a regular basis in sensitive areas.
"Since such officials are on routine duties, they carry their identity cards... One such unit, in early hours of today (Thursday), halted on Janpath, where there was an unusual collection of people.
"This was with a view to check the reason why people had collected at the location... This is a high security zone. Unfortunately, their presence was projected otherwise," the statement said.
In a late-night order, the government on Wednesday divested Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI) chief Alok Verma of his charge and Joint Director M. Nageshwar Rao was asked to take charge as interim chief.
The development comes hours after Verma and his deputy Rakesh Asthana were sent on leave.
"The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved that during the period of the subsistence of the aforesaid interim measure, cited in reference above, Shri 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 ministry of DoPT said in an order issued on Tuesday night.
On Tuesday the Delhi High Court sought that Asthana, who was named in a corruption case, cannot be arrested till Monday when his petition against the case will be heard again.
The court has also ordered the CBI to maintain status quo. The court asked Asthana to “preserve” all his electronic devices at the CBI’s request which had expressed concern about erasing evidence.
Asthana was booked on Monday for accepting bribe to settle a case against meat exporter Moin Qureshi, who is facing multiple cases of money laundering and corruption.
The country's top probe agency alleged that bribes were taken at least five times in December 2017 and October 2018.
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.
(With inputs from agencies)
