Karnataka Director General of Police Praveen Sood will be the next CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) Director after his name was finalised on Saturday by a three-member panel comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, and Leader of the Opposition (Congress) in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
Though there was no official word on the selection, it was learnt that Mr. Chowdhury submitted a dissent note against Mr. Sood’s name as he was not among the original panel of officers who were short-listed for the top CBI job. A source said his name was included at the last minute. The name of the empanelled officers are shared with the panel members ahead of the meeting.
The other senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer who was in the reckoning for the position was DGP of Madhya Pradesh Sudhir Saxena.
Mr. Sood is a 1986-batch IPS officer of the Karnataka cadre. He was appointed as the State DGP three years ago. He hails from Himachal Pradesh and is an alumnus of IIT-Delhi. He was to retire in May 2024, but will now get a two-year fixed tenure and be in office till May 2025 at least.
Interestingly, the meeting took place on a day when the Congress party scored a massive victory in the Karnataka Assembly poll.
Earlier in March, senior Congress leader D.K. Shivkumar had hit out at Mr. Sood for being incompetent and accused him of being a stooge of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka.
The two-year fixed tenure of the present incumbent Subodh Kumar Jaiswal who is a 1985-batch IPS officer from Maharashtra cadre is coming to an end on May 25.
