New Delhi: In a big shake up of the higher rung offices in India’s Paramilitary forces as well as its investigative agencies, the Cabinet Appointments Committee on Sunday approved the elevation of eight Indian Police Service (IPS) officers to the posts of special directors and special directors-general.
Most notable among them is the elevation of Rakesh Asthana, currently serving as the additional director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), who has been promoted to the post of special director of the CBI.
A Gujarat-cadre IPS officer, one of the key cases that Asthana has been handling in the investigative agency is against Lalu Prasad Yadav, where the former railway minister has been accused of several irregularities in tenders during his term as railway minister in 2006.
Seven other IPS officers of the 1984 batch have also been approved for the rank of special director-general in other agencies.
Sudeep Lakhtakia, who had been holding the additional charge of the DG of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), after former DG K. Durga Prasad retired from office on 28 February this year, has also been elevated to Special DG of CRPF. Lakhtakia retires from service on 31 July 2019.