Alok Verma apparently leads the shortlist of contenders for the post of the Chief of CBI.
Delhi police chief Alok Verma apparently leads the shortlist of contenders for the post of the Chief of Central Bureau of Investigation, sources said after a three-member committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi met this evening. Sources said Mr Verma had got two out of three votes - that of PM Modi and Chief Justice of India JS Khehar, but the Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge has opposed.
The Congress supports RK Dutta - a former CBI officer - going along with lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan, who filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the appointment of Gujarat officer RK Asthana as the acting chief of the agency in December after the retirement of Anil Sinha.
In his petition, Mr Bhushan said Mr Datta, an officer of the Karnataka cadre, was most qualified as he has had the longest experience in anti-corruption units. The government said he was given charge of a financial terrorism unit in the Home Ministry as he was too senior and deserved a special pay grade.
In his petition, Mr Bhushan had pointed to Mr Asthana's lack of seniority. A 1984 batch officer, he will be eligible for the post only in 2019.
When Mr Kharge, too, challenged the appointment, the government said it had made an interim appointment since the selection committee led by PM Modi hadn't had time to meet.
With the new chief's tenure being of two years, critics have alleged that the government wanted Mr Asthana to fill in till he was senior enough to be given a more permanent role. Mr Asthana was one of the Gujarat officers handpicked for a move to Delhi when PM Modi took over in 2014.
Mr Verma, a 1979 batch IPS officer of the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory) cadre, served as the Director General of Tihar jail before he replaced BS Bassi as the police chief in February 2016.