subject. Though a lot of people were present at the press conference,' recalls Pandey. Little of this murky business was reported in the national media at that time. Across the country, Ramdev's star was ascendant. It was only in October 2012, five years after Shankar Dev's disappearance, that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBl), India's apex investigative agency, initiated a probe to find him. In his inimitable style, Ramdev welcomed the investigation on the one hand, but also attacked the CBI and the government, accusing them of a politically motivated conspiracy to frame him m the case. Given the sour relationship between Ramdev and the Union government at that time, his allegation did have some credence. Whatever the CBI's initial motivations, it was widely reported- that it initiated a move to close the case in December 2014 - by this time the Narendra Modi-led government had taken charge at the-Centre – because the agency had failed to make any headway. The special BJ magistrate in Dehradun set the date for the next hearing as 12 January 2015 but this is where the public case file goes cold. It‗s hard to ascertain what happened thereafter. While a right to information (RTI) request I filed with the CBI in Delhi met with the response that the CBI was not covered by the RTI, another filed in Dehradun met with the response that the CBI does not answer questions on open cases. Ergo, the case is still open. (c) At Page 201 Chapter 25 : Conclusion "A trail of people whose goodwill or frailties he used to further his own enrichment and pursue his own agenda, people who were left by the wayside after they had served their purpose. A trail of people who either vanished into thin air, or died mysterious deaths, or live on in utter fear of him. A trail of decisions and political machinations driven not by the principles he espouses but by expediency." CS (OS) 27/2019 Page 29 of 76