How Praveen Sood, new CBI chief, is shaking up the probe agency

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has seen a flurry of activity in recent months. Since taking over as CBI Director in May 2023, Praveen Sood has been shaking up the system, weeding out officers outstaying their tenure and introducing changes in the way the agency functions.

Adhering strictly to the rule book, Sood has given the marching orders to some of the officials who have overstayed their tenure of deputation in the agency, putting in place systems to repatriate them to their parent cadres at the earliest. A handful of them were with the agency for over a decade — the Supreme Court had asked the CBI not to repatriate them to their parent cadre as they were involved in probes into the infamous coal auction scam. Their repatriation required prior permission from the top court.

Following a ‘note on administrative issues’ moved by Sood in the Supreme Court, the top court allowed the agency to repatriate four key personnel. These are Joint Directors Vineet Vinayak, a 1995 Sikkim cadre IPS officer, and Amit Kumar, a 1998 Chhattisgarh cadre IPS officer; and Deputy Inspectors General (DIGs) Keshav Ram Chaurasia, a 2013 J&K cadre IPS officer, and Prem Kumar Gautam, a 2003 Uttar Pradesh cadre IPS officer.

Frequent relaxations

The permissible limit for deputation tenure in the CBI for IPS officials is 4-7 years. This is extended — by just a few months — if there are pressing circumstances such as pending investigation in crucial cases. But, of late, the agency had seen very frequent such relaxations in the tenure policy.

Sood’s move is seen as an effort to follow the rule book as far the deputation tenure of IPS and other officials is concerned, said officials in the know.

The new CBI chief has also written to all the branches, seeking information on officials who have protection from court on their repatriation to their parent cadre or department. Therefore, more such repatriations cannot be ruled out in the near future.

“The continuous presence of these officials in the CBI was generating unwelcome attention within the agency as they had completed their tenure long back,” said a bureaucrat aware of the inner workings of the agency, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Coal scam cases

The CBI informed the Supreme Court that there are 57 cases registered by the agency linked to irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks. Of those, chargesheets have been filed in 44 cases and two cases have been closed for want of evidence (the court concerned had already accepted the closure report in one matter and, in the second, the court’s order is awaited).

There are nine other cases where sanction to prosecute the accused or request sent aboard seeking information is pending. Trial is already over in 15 cases and is pending in 29 others.

The CBI further informed the top court that field investigation is pending only in one case and it will be completed shortly.

“Acceding to the request of the CBI, we permit the relieving of the officers so as to facilitate their repatriation to their parent cadres. In order to facilitate CBI in making transitional arrangements and complete administrative formalities for handing over of charge, we direct that they shall be relieved on or before 30 September 2023,” said the bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra.

Besides the four IPS officials, the top court also allowed the CBI to disassociate three other inspector-rank officials of the agency — Rajbir Singh, JR Katiyar, and Jeetendra Sharma — from the coal scam probes.

Key transfers

When Sood took over as CBI chief in the last week of May, Amit Kumar, one of the officials set to be repatriated to his parent cadre of Chhattisgarh, was handling the crucial policy division. That division handles sensitive surveillance responsibilities and vigilance probes against CBI officials.

But, last month, Nitin Deep Blaggan, a Joint Director-rank official handling training, was brought in in the place of Amit Kumar. The latter was sent to a zone looking after the Vyapam cases in Madhya Pradesh. The case refers to the alleged rigging of professional exams by bribing officials on a massive scale. Probe into most of the Vyapam cases is already over.

But soon, Amit Kumar’s order was changed and he was given charge of another crucial division called Anti-Corruption (Headquarters) Zone, which looks after probes in high-profile cases.

But now, following a request from the CBI, the Supreme Court has agreed to send him back to his parent cadre.

Sources say Sood has followed the rule book in the case of another IPS official on deputation to the CBI. Anurag, a 1994 Tripura cadre IPS officer, was promoted to the next rank of Additional Director in June. He was handling the bank fraud zone of the agency, which looks into cases of loan defaults. But, in July, he was sent back to the parent cadre after the completion of his deputation tenure of seven years.

Before him, in June, another IPS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre (1994 batch), Rakesh Agarwal, who was handling the sensitive Delhi excise policy case wherein Delhi’s former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is an accused, was repatriated to the parent cadre after completing an extended tenure seven years and nine months.

Outstation visits

Besides going by the rules on deputation tenure, Sood is also doing something which no other chief has done in the recent past, say sources. He is visiting the outstation branches of the CBI and having interactions with the officials posted there.

Officials say when Sood visits the branches, he is up-to-date on their key issues, ranging from key cases to administrative matters like pending transfer requests. He seeks answers but allows officials to speak freely, too.

In the past, there were CBI chiefs who were more interested in meeting the accused or their lawyers in their official residence or networking in the pre-lunch hours, said the sources. Those chiefs would come to the headquarters only in the afternoon, and just for a few hours. They would spend huge amounts on renovating their residences and do little else, thereby completing their tenures ‘peacefully’.

In contrast, Sood has managed to grasp the key issues of the CBI and also taken steps to initiate dialogues with the rank and file of the agency, the sources say.