Karnataka Police Chief Praveen Sood To Be Next CBI Director

Karnataka Police Chief Praveen Sood will be the next director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

He would have a tenure as CBI chief for the next two years. The name of Sood was finalised by a high-level committee comprising the Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

Sood is a 1986-batch officer from Karnataka. The CBI director is selected by a committee comprising the Prime Minister, CJI and Leader of the Opposition for a fixed tenure of two years. The tenure however can be extended to a period of five years.

The appointment was made as the term of Subodh Kumar comes to an end.

During the meeting that was held at the residence of the Prime Minister, three names had been short-listed. The names were then forwarded to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.

The names that were in contention included, Sudhir Kumar Saxena, DGP of Madhya Pradesh, and Taj Hassan, who is the Director General of Fire Service, Civil Defence and Home Guards.

Sood, according to sources had the backing of the PM and CJI. However, the Leader of the Opposition is said to have submitted a dissenting note on the ground that he was not part of a pool of IPS officers eligible to serve at the DGP level at the Centre.

The appointment comes at a crucial time when the CBI is probing several sensitive cases such as the spyware scandal and the alleged irregularities in the procurement of medical equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new director will have the challenge of leading the agency in these challenging times.