An IPS officer and the chief of Central Industrial Security Forces Subodh Kumar Jaiswal has been appointed as the chief of the Central Bureau of Investigation. The tenure of Maharashtra cadre officer in CBI will be for a two-year period.
The order regarding his appointment came a series of meetings between Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chief Justice of India and opposition leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. The government has picked him from a panel of three officers shortlisted by Prime Minister’s high- level selection committee. Apart from Mr. Jaiswal two other officers shortlisted for the post were Special Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs V.S.K. Kaumudi and Bihar cadre IPS K.R. Chandra.
Interestingly, the selection committee held a 90-minute meeting to finalise the officer on Monday. During the meeting, the Chief Justice insisted that any officer to be considered should have six months’ tenure left in the service.
This is for the first time that the rule of six months’ tenure was applied in the appointment of the CBI chief. It led to dropping of two most trusted officials of the government: NIA chief Y.C. Mody and BSF chief Rakesh Asthana.
A 1985 batch officer Mr Jaiswal has held the top post in the Mumbai police and subsequently was the police chief of Maharashtra before being called for central deputation earlier this year. He has not served in the CBI before but he had been part of the Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
