NEW DELHI: Senior IPS officer and present Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) director-general (DG) Ranjit Sinha will be the new CBI chief after retirement of the incumbent A P Singh on November 30.
An order to this effect was issued by the ministry of personnel on Thursday, with the government fast tracking the process to dodge any possibility of a setback during the hearing of Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar's protest petition in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) on Friday.
Kumar was one of the contenders for this coveted job before a government panel kept him out of the shortlist of three IPS officers for the top CBI job on the basis of a complaint from an accused in a case of disproportionate assets being probed by the agency.
Sinha is a 1974 batch officer of Bihar cadre, whereas Kumar, who is two batches junior to him, belongs to the Union Territory cadre.
Sinha's name for the post of CBI chief was approved by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
Besides the ITBP DG, the present National Investigation Agency chief S C Sinha (1975 batch officer of Haryana cadre) and former DGP of Uttar Pradesh Atul (1976 batch officer of UP cadre) were the other two in the list whose names went to the ACC for final decision.
Anguished by the exclusion, Kumar had recently moved the CAT questioning the procedure for selecting the three officers. He has protested that the government panel, led by the Chief Vigilance Commissioner, benched him on the basis of a complaint from an accused in a CBI case: a position that many in the government seem to be sympathetic to.
In his complaint, Vijay Agarwal, brother of a controversial officer of Enforcement Directorate Ashok Agarwal who faces serious allegations himself, alleged that a CBI inspector intimidated him at the instance of Kumar, who was at the time a joint director with the CBI. The complaint raised eyebrows because of the assertion that the inspector called up Kumar in the presence of the complainant to inform him that his instructions had been carried out.
Justice R C Jain of the Delhi High Court ordered an investigation into Agarwal's charge. The directive passed on Justice Agarwal's last day on the bench was stayed by a division bench of the HC: something which is cited by Kumar's sympathizers to argue, contrary to the reasoning of the panel that shortlisted the three top contenders for CBI director, that there was no case pending against Kumar when he was excluded from the list.
Many in the government fault the committee for failing to factor in the fact that many accused routinely level allegations against police officers investigating them, and that protection against such tactics are built in both the Cr PC and the Delhi Police Special Establishment Act which governs the CBI.
In his nine-year-long stint with the CBI, Kumar investigated and solved several cases: from Mumbai serial blasts and Beant Singh murder case to match-fixing and deportation of dreaded criminal Babloo Srivastava.
His exclusion from the list had paved the way for inclusion of the fourth senior-most officer in the list of six, Atul, in the select panel of three top contenders - prompting Kumar to move the CAT.
Sinha will assume the charge of CBI director at the time when the investigating agency is probing a number of high-profile cases including 2G spectrum scam, CWG scam, coalgate and NRHM scandals among others. He will have two-year fixed tenure as the agency chief.
Sinha had earlier served the CBI on deputation as DIG in Patna and also served as Joint Director (Anti-corruption) and Joint Director (Administration) in Delhi.
Before joining as DG, ITBP, Sinha headed Railway Protection Force (RPF) as DG and made significant contribution in implementing integrated security scheme at various Railway Stations in the wake of terrorist attack at Mumbai's CST Railway Station.
ITBP DG Ranjit Sinha to be new CBI chief
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ITBP DG Ranjit Sinha to be new CBI chief
