Rakesh Asthana to be interim chief of CBI

The Central government on Friday appointed Rakesh Asthana, a 1984 batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre, as the interim Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after the current chief, Anil Sinha, relinquished office on completion of his two-year tenure.

The decision comes two days after CBI Special Director R K Dutta, who was among the frontrunners for the top post, was shifted to the Home Ministry as a Special Secretary, a post created for the first time in the ministry. It is the first time in the last 10 years that no new permanent CBI chief has been named to succeed an incumbent.

The CBI chief is selected through a collegium comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition or the largest Opposition party in Lok Sabha, and the Chief Justice of India. The collegium has not been able to meet prompting the Centre to give Asthana the additional charge of director of the agency.

Asthana, who was serving as the Additional Director in CBI, is believed to be close to both PM Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah. Asthana had previously headed the state SIT that probed the burning of Sabarmati Express train at Godhra in February 2002.

The SIT had then found that the burning of a coach of Sabarmati Express, which claimed lives of 59 people, was a “carefully planned and meticulously executed criminal conspiracy”.

The 1984 batch officer has also supervised the fodder scam probe allegedly involving the then Chief Minister of Bihar Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Meanwhile, 60-year-old Sinha, during his last interaction as the agency director said that he is leaving the CBI with hopes that the agency will be the “best in the world”. Sinha had taken charge amidst allegations that the probe agency was susceptible to political pressure.