New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of interfering in the working of the CBI and wondered if its Director Alok Verma was "sacked" for his keenness to probe the "layers of corruption" in the Rafale scam.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi while addressing an election rally in Jhalawar, Rajasthan, said: "The CBI director was removed last night because he had summoned the papers of the Rafale deal." 

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He tweeted that "CBI chief Alok Verma was collecting documents relating to the Rafale deal. He has been forcibly sent on leave. PM Modi's message is clear: Whoever sniffs around the Rafale deal will be removed. The country and the Constitution are in danger," Gandhi said in a tweet.

Elsewhere, activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan moved the Supreme Court to challenge the government's order to send Verma on leave.

Bhushan said the order illegal and claimed that Verma was removed because he involved in a feud with CBI special director Rakesh Asthana, "who was foisted on CBI by PMO despite being investigated by the CBI itself in corruption cases".

Bushan also said that Verma was also considering a Rafale deal complaint that he had filed along with Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha a couple of days ago.

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Earlier in the day, former law minister M Veerappa Moily said the removal of the CBI director was illegal, unethical and unconstitutional.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley, however, dismissed as "rubbish" allegations that Verma was removed because he wanted to look into the Rafale fighter jet deal.

He said the government's decision to remove Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana is based on the Central Vigilance Commission's recommendations.

The Congress on its official Twitter handle asked, Why has the government removed CBI Director Alok Verma of his charge and sealed his offices? Who are they protecting and what are they hiding?

Meanwhile, MyNation has found out that just an anonymous complaint about the Rafale deal had reached the defence ministry. There is no evidence that the CBI in general or Alok Verma in particular was handling a case of alleged irregularity in the India-France aircraft deal.