CBI chief gets marching orders

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 10

The high-powered selection committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today gave the marching orders to controversial CBI Director Alok Verma after a marathon meeting. 

  The other members on the panel were Justice AK Sikri of the Supreme Court and Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge. The latter opposed the move. 

Sources said Verma, a 1979-batch AGMUT-cadre IPS officer, was removed from the post on charges of “corruption and dereliction of duty”. He is the first CBI chief to face such an action, they said.

This was the panel’s second meeting as deliberations on Wednesday over Verma’s fate had remained inconclusive with Kharge seeking documents, including the inquiry report by the Central Vigilance Commission.

Additional Director M Nageshwar Rao has been given interim charge till the appointment of a new Director. 

Kharge is learnt to have given his dissent note on Verma’s ouster, arguing that sent on “forced leave”, Verma be given an extension of 77 days for the period he was not allowed to attend office.

Verma was sent on forced leave on October 23, 2018, in the wake of a feud between him and his deputy, Special Director Rakesh Asthana. The Supreme Court set aside Verma’s “forced leave” but restrained him from taking any major policy decisions till the time the CVC concluded its probe into the charges against him. 

The apex court said any further decision on Verma would be taken by the high-powered committee. 

The Supreme Court, in the Vineet Narayan judgment, had fixed a minimum tenure of two years for the CBI Director. Through the Lokpal Act later, the selection process was handed over to a committee.