New Delhi: Within three days of being shunted out as the Director General of Police (DGP) in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday, Rishi Kumar Shukla, a 1983 batch IPS officer of MP cadre, was on Saturday appointed the new director of the CBI for a period of two years. He sat in the Madhya Pradesh Police Headquarters in Bhopal for just two days as an OSD (officer-on-special duty) before getting the new post to fill the vacancy since January 10 after the unceremonious exit of Alok Verma, who was engaged in a bitter fight with his No 2 Rakesh Asthana, a Gujarat cadre IPS officer, over corruption charges.
Shukla, who had become the DGP on June 30, 2016 during the previous BJP government, takes over the post from M Nageswara Rao, who took charge as the interim director from Verma on October 24 and again on January 10 on the latter”s exit from the investigating agency. Hailing from Madhya Pradesh itself, Shukla otherwise had 19 months to retire as he was born on August 23, 1960. He is BCom. His selection to the CBI came after three rounds of meeting of the Prime Minister Modi-led selection panel, which also included Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge. The panel had shortlisted five officers on Friday and the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC), also headed by PM Modi, picked up Shukla for the CBI”s top post.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) issued the appointment order on Saturday which reads: “The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has, based on the panel recommended by the committee constituted as per Section 4A(1) of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, approved the appointment of Shri Rishi Kumar Shukla, IPS (MP:1983) as Director, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) vice Shri Alok Kumar Verma, IPX (AGMU: 1979), for a period of two years from the date of assumption of charge of the office.” After removal from the post, Verma was supposed to take over as the Director General of Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guards, but he refused on the ground that he should be considered as deemed superannuated since he completed superannuation age of 60 on July 31, 2017. He had taken over as the CBI director for the fixed two-year tenure on February 1, 2017.
Only on Friday, the Supreme Court had expressed displeasure over filling his post with Nageswara Rao as an interim director, asking the government to fill up such a sensitive post with a regular director. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath removed Rishi Kumar Shukla early this week because of many law and order issues cropping up due to his mishandling. He was replaced with V K Singh, who was also the acting DGP during the Assembly elections on account of Shukla going on vacation. CBI is investigating into state”s biggest scam ”Vyapam”. CBI had filed 153 cases in this scam. Congress has made several allegations on CBI over its investigations into Vyapam scam.MP cadre IPS holding top posts: The top posts in the country have IPS officers of MP cadre. Rishi Shukla has been posted as CBI director whereas IPS officer of MP cadre Anil Kumar Dasmana is current chief of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
