1983 batch IPS officer Rishi Kumar appointed as new CBI Director

New Delhi: Selection Committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday appointed 1983 batch IPS officer (Madhya Pradesh cadre), Rishi Kumar Shukla as the new CBI Director.

Shukla, the former Director General of Police (DGP) of Madhya Pradesh, will have a fixed tenure of two years during which he will have a huge task to restore the credibility of the agency.

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He has joined at a time when CBI is going through a leadership crisis and discontent among subordinate officers, who are upset with their "unjustified transfers."

Shukla will take charge from acting director M Nageswara Rao, who took over the post last month following the sacking of Alok Verma by the panel.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court had showed its unhappiness over the delay in appointing a regular CBI director and had asked the Centre to "immediately" appoint a regular chief of the probe agency.

The post of the CBI chief has been lying vacant since January 10 after the unceremonious exit of Alok Verma, who had been engaged in a bitter fight with Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana over corruption charges. After which, M Nageswara Rao has been working as the interim CBI chief after Verma's ouster.

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Both Verma and Asthana had accused each other of corruption.

Verma had taken over as the CBI chief on February 1, 2017 for a fixed two-year tenure that ended Thursday.

IPS Rishi Kumar Shukla has been appointed as the new Director, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) pic.twitter.com/uaT7gN6Nij

— ANI (@ANI) February 2, 2019

Verma, after being removed from the post of CBI director by the PM-led panel, was named as the Director General of Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guards -- a less significant portfolio.

Former CBI Chief, Alok declined to take up his posting, arguing he had actually superannuated in 2017 and was in service only because of the two-year tenure given to the CBI director. The Centre, however, has concluded there is no “deemed retirement” and there must be a resignation or completion of service.

Alok’s absence from the office had created much hype in the bureaucracy as officials were strongly retaliating his move, calling it an act of disobedience.

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