It took a two-hour meeting to remove Alok Verma (again) as CBI director. This comes just a day after Verma returned to his office after the Supreme Court ruled that his being sent on forced leave in the first round went against procedural norms.
But in a dubious first for the agency, the selection committee chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and comprising Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Supreme Court judge A.K. Sikri, who was nominated by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi to represent him, removed Verma on charges of corruption and dereliction of duty after going through the Central Vigilance Commission report, overruling Kharge’s protests.
It shouldn’t come as a complete surprise. While reinstating Verma, the Supreme Court had a rider—that he could not take key policy decisions until the completion of a probe against him, which indicated that the top court did not have full faith in Verma, or in his innocence. The selection panel clearly displayed that it, too, did not have faith in the now-former CBI director.