NEW DELHI: Syed Asif Ibrahim, a 1977 batch IPS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, is set to take over as the new director of Intelligence Bureau. Ibrahim, who will succeed incumbent Nehchal Sandhu who is due to retire in December end, will be the first Muslim officer to head the country's premier intelligence agency.
External intelligence agency RAW will also see a change at the helm, with Alok Joshi, a 1976 batch officer of the Haryana cadre, being chosen to succeed Sanjeev Tripathi as the new head.
The two appointments, which have been cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), will be notified soon as part of the usual practice of having the new heads of IB and RAW in place a month before the incumbents retire. This is to ensure a smooth transition in the intelligence leadership, sources told TOI.
Ibrahim will supersede at least four IB officers who ranked ahead of him in terms of seniority. While R N Gupta, V Rajagopal and Yashovardhan Azad belong to the 1976 batch, S Jayaraman, though from the 1977 batch, is also senior to Ibrahim. All four are likely to be accommodated in key posts outside the IB, considering the sensitivities involved.
Both Joshi and Ibrahim will have a fixed tenure of two years until December 31, 2014. They will be part of the changeover regime that will serve for some months, in case the general election is held as per schedule in April-May 2014.
Ibrahim is currently serving as a special director in the IB and looks after cyber operations and security. His earlier stints included as private secretary to late Madhavrao Scindia when he was railway minister and civil aviation minister and as OSD to home minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed in the V P Singh government.
While Gupta and Rajagopal are expected to be accommodated in the cabinet secretariat and National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), Azad may be moved out as secretary (security) in the PMO.
Meanwhile, another set of appointments in central paramilitary forces is expected soon. The home ministry has recommended a three-month extension for BSF chief U K Bansal, besides suggesting Arun Choudhary, currently special DG in the CISF, as Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) chief. With the post of ITBP chief also falling vacant following the appointment of Ranjit Sinha as CBI chief, a successor is expected to be decided in the coming days.
Syed Ibrahim set to be first Muslim chief of IB
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Syed Ibrahim set to be first Muslim chief of IB
