Rishi Kumar Shukla Appointed New CBI Director

New Delhi: Former Madhya Pradesh Directorate General of Police Rishi Kumar Shukla has been appointed as the new CBI Director.

He is a 1984 batch IPS officer and has been appointed for a period of two years, said a Government notification.

His name was chosen from a shortlist of over 30 contenders for the top post by a high-powered committee comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Opposition leader Mallikarjun Kharge.

However, citing Shukla’s lack of experience in anti-corruption investigations, Kharge, in a dissent note to the PM, had expressed his objection over the appointment. But it took several calls and a lot of convincing from the Prime Minister along with the Chief Justice for the protesting Congress leader to agree to Shukla’s name, media reports said.

The 58-year-old officer from Gwalior is at present the chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Police Housing Corporation. Although Mr Shukla has never been part of the CBI, he had served in the Intelligence Bureau where he handled several sensitive cases. He is said to be close to National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

Shukla will take over from acting CBI director M Nageswara Rao, who took over the post last month following the sacking of Alok Verma by the Prime Minister-led three member panel.

The post of CBI chief has been lying vacant since January 10 after the unceremonious exit of Verma. He had taken over as the CBI chief on February 1, 2017 for a fixed two year tenure which ended on Thursday. However, he had resigned from Government service following his removal from the post.