Interim CBI chief's orders including mass transfers on hold: Supreme Court

New Delhi: M Nageswara Rao, who took charge as the interim chief of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday, can take no policy decisions following the Supreme Court's order today.

Hearing exiled CBI director Alok Verma's petition challenging his forced leave and the appointment of Nageswara Rao as interim chief of the country’s top investigating agency, the apex court said decisions taken by Rao since his takeover on October 23 will not be implemented.

The decisions, which included the mass transfer of CBI officers investigating corruption charges against Alok Verma's deputy Rakesh Asthana, will be scrutinised, the three judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi indicated.

All decisions taken by Nageswara Rao have to be placed before the court in a sealed cover.

Nageswara Rao, a 1986 batch Odisha-cadre IPS officer, took charge as interim chief of CBI around 2 am on Tuesday night following a government order giving him Alok Verma's powers.

Rao signed off on a series of orders overnight, which included the sealing and search of the CBI director's office in Delhi, and transfer of key officers; one officer was dispatched to Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar, which provoked allegations that he had been exiled to "kala paani".

The feud between the CBI’s top two -- Alok Verma and Rakesh Asthana -- escalated with each accusing the other of corruption.

The standoff got murkier after the CBI filed a case against Rakesh Asthana, accusing of taking bribe from business Satish Sana being investigated by the agency.

Asthana then wrote to the government that it was his boss who was corrupt and was trying to frame him.