New Delhi: Rakesh Asthana, a former officer of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), was appointed Delhi commissioner today, just three days before his retirement. A Union Home Ministry order tonight said Mr Asthana, currently the Director General of the Border private security force , would join the Delhi Police with a year’s extension in commission .
Two months ago, Mr Asthana was ruled out of the race for the post of CBI Director because he was to retire in but six months. When a panel headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi met in May to pick a replacement chief investigator, judge NV Ramana reportedly raised a Supreme Court judgment that had said officers with but six months left in commission shouldn’t be considered for captain posts.
That ruled out a minimum of two names on the government’s shortlist, including Mr Asthana, who was to retire on July 31 His appointment as Delhi captain was enabled by an extension granted “in public interest”, consistent with an order from the Appointments Committee of Cabinet comprising PM Modi and residential Minister Amit Shah.
The order said Mr Asthana was getting an “inter cadre deputation” from the Gujarat cadre to AGMUT (from where Delhi Police chiefs are picked) and his service was being extended “initially for a period of 1 year beyond the date of his superannuation… as a special case publicly interest”.
Mr Asthana’s appointment has come as a surprise to several who see him as an outsider. After SS Jog and Ajayraj Sharma, he’s the third officer from other cadres given the highest police post The outgoing captain , Balaji Srivastava, was given additional charge barely a month ago after SN Shrivastava retired.
A 1984-batch IPS officer, Mr Asthana was removed of Gujarat to the CBI as Special Director after the BJP-led government came to power in 2014 Then CBI chief Alok Verma had opposed the appointment of Mr Asthana, who was described by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as “the PM’s blue-eyed boy”.
Mr Verma was faraway from the post of CBI director by the govt after he had ensured filing of an FIR against Mr Asthana on corruption charges.
In 2018, both officers — Mr Verma and Mr Asthana — were allegedly placed on an inventory of possible targets for surveillance using the Israeli spyware Pegasus, which is sold only to governments.
News portal “The Wire” reported last week that Mr Verma was placed on the list just hours after he was sacked and Mr Asthana a couple of hours later. Mr Verma was also a Delhi commissioner before being appointed a Director of the CBI.
Mr Asthana was faraway from the CBI in 2018 and made the Director General of Civil Aviation Security in January 2019.
He got a clean chit from the CBI in February 2020 in reference to allegations of accepting bribes from fraud-accused pharma company Sterling Biotech.
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