PM-led panel's meet to select CBI chief remains 'inconclusive' as Kharge seeks more time

New Delhi, Jan 24: A high-powered selection committee will meet any time next week to appoint the new CBI director after Alok Verma was removed from the post on January 10, this year. The selection committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and members Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and leader of the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge met late in the evening to finalise the name of the next CBI chief.

Both the CJI and Kharge said they needed more time about who served in what position and the officers' respective competencies. They also requested that next meeting be called at the earliest.

The meeting comes nearly two weeks after Alok Verma was removed as the CBI boss by the high-powered panel in a 2:1 majority verdict. PM Modi heads the three-panel member; the other two members are Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and the leader of the largest opposition party in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge of the Congress.

The government has shortlisted as many as 12 candidates based on their seniority, integrity, experience in probing anti-corruption cases and most importantly, their experience of working in the CBI or handling vigilance matters.

Kharge had written on January 15 a strong letter to Modi attacking the appointment of M. Nageshwara Rao as interim Chief as illegal and sought an immediate meeting of the Selection Committee.

While ousting Verma from the post on January 10, the government shifted him as as Director General Fire Service, Homeguard and Civil Services but he refused to take up the new post and quit.

There has been a controversy ever since with Justice A.K.Sikri, the representative of CJI, who had sided with the government in the Jan 10 meeting, refusing to accept his nomination for a London-based Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal (CSAT) after it triggered a row.