Three Names Shortlisted For CBI Chief Post; Know All About Top Contenders

Several officers of the 1985 and 1986 batches are in the race for the top post for a fixed term of two years.

New Delhi: On Monday, a high powered meeting was conducted at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's residence to select the new Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Several officers of the 1985 and 1986 batches are in the race for the top post for a fixed term of two years. The meeting started around at 6 p.m. and lasted for over 90 minutes. 

Aside from the PM, the Chief Justice of India, N.V. Ramana, and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury discussed the names for the top CBI post. Currently, the CBI got an acting Director in the form of Praveen Sinha after the term of R.K. Shukla ended on February 3rd. 

Three top contenders according to PTI are - Director General CISF Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, SSB DG Kumar Rajesh Chandra and Special Secretary Home Ministry VSK Kaumudi. Uttar Pradesh DGP HC Awasthy, a 1985-batch IPS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, was also under consideration.

Know the candidates better

Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, a 1985-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, is a former Maharashtra director general of police. He is at present the director general the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). According to a Financial Express report, he had served in Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and worked for the Centre as an additional secretary to Cabinet Secretariat, before joining as the Police Commissioner of Mumbai. Jaiswal probed the September 2006 Malegaon blast case while serving as a deputy inspector general (DIG) of the Anti-Terrorism Squad.

Kumar Rajesh Chandra is too a 1985-batch IPS officer of the Bihar cadre, is at present posted as the director general of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) a position he took on 2019. He pursued a PG in Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi and has served in the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and the Special Protection Group according to Indian Express.

VSK Kaumudi who is of a 1986-batch IPS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre, is posted as the special secretary for internal security in the Home Ministry. According to the Indian Express, he was the chief of Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) under whom, a comprehensive report on fake news which was shared it with police forces across the country last May to combat the fake news which was going viral quickly. 

Procedure to select the director

After the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) chooses the names of at least three or four officers for the CBI Director's post, they are sent to the Select Committee comprising the Prime Minister, the CJI and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, which decides the final pick for a fixed term of two years. According to the guidelines set by the Supreme Court in 2004, officers from the four oldest serving batches of IPS are considered for the top post.

As per the guidelines, officials having experience in anti-corruption investigations or CBI, from the senior most four batches of IPS cadre, will be empanelled, following which a screening of three officers would be sent to the Appointments' Committee of the Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister.

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury accused the government of adopting a "casual and superficial" approach in selecting the new CBI director and questioned the shortlisting process, saying it is in conflict with the mandate of the selection committee according to PTI.

"The way procedure was followed it was in conflict of the mandate of the committee. On 11th (May), I was given 109 names and today by 1 pm, 10 names were shortlisted and by 4 pm, six names were shortlisted. This casual approach of DoPT (department of personnel and training) is highly objectionable," Chowdhury told PTI.