The Central Bureau of Investigation has raised questions about the hurry shown by a committee headed by the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) and including senior government secretaries to induct officers into the agency, while stating that its second senior-most official do not have the mandate to represent the CBI chief in such meetings.
According to multiple sources, the CBI has filed repeated objections with the CVC, who heads the committee that approves senior-level appointments to the agency, against its hurry in inducting IPS officers facing allegations and investigations.
No mandate
The CBI’s policy division, with the approval of CBI Director Alok Verma, last week told the CVC that the second senior-most CBI officer, Special Director Rakesh Asthana, did not have the mandate to represent Mr. Verma in the CVC committee meetings because he was under the scanner in several cases.
Based on the revelations and other public documents, the Congress on Monday asked who was behind the appointment of tainted officers into the premier investigation agency.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said in New Delhi that there was a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministerial colleagues used to say the CBI had been made a captive party.
“But the situation now is such that any citizen would be concerned. The CBI is now afflicted with a malady that is incurable. Documents in the public domain now make it clear that tainted officials who themselves are facing charges are being appointed to top positions and the CBI director doesn’t know about them,” Mr. Surjewala said.
Congress’s query
The Congress leader asked who was recommending the tainted officers: “Are they being recommended by the PMO? Or RSS headquarters or the BJP head office? The CBI is now a stooge of the Modi government that is being used to target political rivals.”
According to details emerging in public, over the past few months, the CBI has written at least three letters to the CVC objecting to the hurry in appointing certain officers to the CBI. In one of its latest communications, the CBI’s policy division said that Mr. Asthana did not have the mandate to represent Mr. Verma in the CVC meetings.
The letter was sent with the approval of Mr. Verma, who is abroad on a visit.
All appointments in the CBI above the rank of Superintendent of Police are approved by a five-member committee chaired by the CVC and including two vigilance commissioners and secretaries of the Home Ministry and the Department of Personnel and Training. The CBI chief is an invitee to the committee and has to be consulted.
The committee was under the scanner last year when it recommended promotion of Mr. Asthana, a Gujarat-cadre IPS officer, to the rank of Special Director, overruling the CBI chief’s objections because of Mr. Asthana’s alleged links to a major corruption case in Gujarat.