Rakesh Asthana Biography 
Rakesh Asthana is an IPS officer of the 1984 batch of Gujarat cadre. He also serves as the Special Director at the Central Bureau of Investigation. In 2018 October he came to limelight when CBI charged Rakesh Asthana with extortion and forgery in addition to the bribery and corruption charges. His own agency also clarified there has been change in responsibilities of Rakesh Asthana. Asthana may have got relief from arrest by HC but agency may examine him, and the agency came out in defence of its chief Alok Verma. Earlier Asthana has investigated high profile cases like Fodder Scam of Bihar, which resulted in the arrest of Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Rakesh Asthana hails from Ranchi of present-day Jharkhand. He was born on 9 March 1961. Asthana completed his schooling from St. Xavier's School, Ranchi, and graduation from Jawaharlal Nehru University. He joined Indian Police Service in 1984 exams and was selected to Gujarat cadre. Among the high profile cases he investigated, Fodder Scam involving the leading politician Lalu Prasad Yadav heads the list. The scandal involved the embezzlement of about 9.4 billion Indian rupees from the government treasury of Bihar. He filed a charge sheet against Lalu Prasad Yadav in 1996, and got arrested him the next year.
Asthana came to limelight for the second time when he caught DGMS Director General taking bribes in Dhanbad. It was for the first time in the country when the officers of the Director-General had come under arrest. He was later appointed as Special Director of CBI, and has been serving the position when many charges were filed on him. It also witnessed a war of words between Asthana and his colleague, Alok Verma who serves as CBI director. As per latest updates, the government sent both these officers on leave and appointed M. Nageshwar Rao as interim chief of the probe agency.
Published: October 28, 2018
Updated: October 28, 2018
