Karnataka DGP Sood next CBI chief

New Delhi, May 14

Karnataka Director General of Police Praveen Sood has been appointed the next Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation for a two-year term, a government order said on Sunday.

The 59-year-old, who was picked from a panel of three senior IPS officers, will take charge after incumbent Subodh Kumar Jaiswal completes his tenure on May 25.

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• Kangra-born Praveen Sood, 59, is the seniormost IPS officer in the country after Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, the current CBI chief
• Will take charge after the incumbent CBI chief completes term on May 25
• An alumnus of IIT-Delhi, IIM-Bangalore and Syracuse University in New York, the DGP is scheduled to retire in 2024

Sood is a 1986-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Karnataka cadre and the seniormost IPS officer in the country after Jaiswal. His name was cleared on Saturday at a meeting of a high-powered committee comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. Besides Sood, two names of the 1987-batch IPS officers – Dinkar Gupta of Punjab cadre and Sushir Saxena of Madhya Pradesh cadre — were also discussed at the meeting, official sources said.

Congress leader Chowdhury reportedly gave a dissenting note on the selection of Sood as the next CBI director. However, there is no official word on it. The Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) in an order issued today said: “The approval of the competent authority is hereby conveyed for the appointment of Praveen Sood, IPS (KN:86) as Director, CBI, for a period of two years from the date of assumption of charge of the office vice Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, IPS (MH:85), consequent upon completion of his tenure.”

Sood has an impressive educational background. He is an alumnus of IIT-Delhi, IIM-Bangalore and Syracuse University in New York, the DoPT order said. The Karnataka-cadre IPS officer, who was scheduled to retire in 2024, will now have a fixed two-year tenure as the CBI Director.

Sood was earlier Superintendent of Police of Bellary and Raichur districts, Deputy Commissioner of Police (law and order) and Additional Commissioner of Police (traffic) in Bengaluru, and Commissioner of Police of Mysuru City. He has also served as police adviser to the government of Mauritius.

During his tenure as ADGP (computer wing), Sood oversaw the challenging assignment to implement the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System in Karnataka for real-time monitoring and sharing of information by connecting police stations with the central database.

Dissenting note by Cong’s Adhir Ranjan?

Cong leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who was part of the high-powered committee to make the selection, reportedly gave a dissenting note. However, there is no official word on it