Race hots up as top posts up for grab

New Delhi: Some of the country’s best known cops are vying for top slots in the security establishment as the government hunts for new chiefs of investigation units, spy agencies and armed police forces.

The positions that are up for grabs are Intelligence Bureau director, secretary (R) (R&AW chief), director generals of ITBP, special protection group (SPG), railway police force (RPF) and Border Security Force. The most sought after is post is that of director, Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Indications are that Delhi police commissioner Amulya Patnaik, NIA chief Y.C. Modi, DG Tihar Central Jail Ajay Kashyap and special director CBI Rakesh Asthana are being considered for some of these jobs. “With several heads of paramilitary forces and central investigative agencies are going to retire in the next few months, hectic lobbying has begun among the top police officers in the in the country for getting the plump postings, sources said.

While name of Y.C. Modi, a 1984-batch Assam-Meghalaya cadre IPS officer, is being considered as the front-runner for the post of next CBI chief, it is believed that government is actively considering the name of Ajay Kashyap, a 1985-batch AGMUT cadre IPS officer as the new face to head Delhi police, sources said.

CBI Director Alok Verma, a 1979 batch IPS officer of the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territories (AGMUT) cadre, is set to retire on January 8-9, 2019. Sources further said the department of personnel and training and ministry of home affairs (MHA) have initiated the process of short listing the name of senior IPS officers for the posts. The list will be further discussed with the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).

Meanwhile, days after CBI’s special director Rakesh Asthana complained about interference in work against its top boss Alok Verma, a senior official from the agency on Monday met Central Vigilance Commissioner K V Chowdary and is understood to have submitted some documents in connection with the matter. Sources said a meeting was held for about an hour between the official of the policy wing of the CBI and Chowdary at the CVC’s office here, they added.

Asthana had recently approached the government with a note saying Verma is interfering in probes undertaken by him and he is being vilified. After Asthana’s complaint was referred to the Central Vigilance Commission by the government, the transparency watchdog had sought files of various cases from the CBI through its letters dated September 11 and September 14.