Former Madhya Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) Rishi Kumar Shukla, was on Saturday appointed as a new Director CBI. The appointment was made by the prime minister-led selection panel.
Shukla has been appointed as CBI chief for a fixed tenure of two years from the day he takes up the position.
The 1983-batch IPS officer is at present chairman of Madhya Pradesh Police Housing Corporation in Bhopal.
Shukla’s appointment was made a day after the second meeting of a high-powered committee comprising PM Narendra Modi, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and opposition leader Mallikarjun Kharge
According to the sources, it took many calls and a lot of convincing from PM Modi along with the Chief Justice for protesting Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge to agree to Shukla’s name.
Kharge has sent dissent note on appointment of new CBI director. He expressed objection and said officers without relevant experience of handling corruption investigations should not have been considered for post of CBI director.
Kharge said, the decision of the panel goes against the spirit of CBI Act. “Seniority cannot be only criterion, but experience in anti-corruption cases should also have been considered in appointment to such a critical post.”
He said all three aspects-seniority, integrity and experience in investigation of anti-corruption cases should be given equal weightage.
On Friday, the Supreme Court had said it was “averse” to the arrangement of an interim CBI Director and the Centre should “immediately” appoint a regular director of the probe agency.
The Top court observed, “the post of CBI Director is sensitive and important, and it is not good to keep an interim director of the agency for longer period.”
The post of CBI director has been lying vacant since January 10 after the ouster of Alok Verma.
M Nageswara Rao has been working as the interim CBI director after Alok Verma’s ouster.
