New Delhi, Oct 25 (IANS): The Intelligence Bureau (IB) on Thursday said four of its men nabbed from outside CBI Director Alok Verma's home, were on routine patrol.

The men were seen waiting in two cars since Wednesday night outside the Janpath bungalow until intercepted and held by Verma's chief security officer. They were caught on the allegation of snooping on Verma. The CBI chief had earlier been sent "on leave".

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the IB has also been informed about the matter.

After a video showing the four being dragged by Verma's personnel security officers went viral, the IB issued a statement saying the men belong to the bureau.

"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.

"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.

The four were handed over to the Delhi Police. They identified themselves as Dheeraj Kumar, Ajay Kumar, Prashant Kumar and Vineet Kumar Gupta, claiming to be IB officers.

Dheeraj and Ajay told the police they were junior officers while the other two claimed to be Assistant Content Officers.

Identity cards and several mobiles phones were recovered from their possession.

Alok Verma and his deputy Special Director Rakesh Asthana were divested of their duties on Wednesday amid an unprecedented feud in the agency as the two hit out at each other over bribery accusations in the meat exporter Moin Qureshi money laundering case.