BENGALURU: Karnataka Director General & Inspector of Police (DG&IGP) Praveen Sood will be the next Director, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
His name was finalised on Saturday by the three-member appointment committee comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, and Leader of the Opposition (Congress) in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
According to placed sources, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has reportedly approved Sood’s appointment based on the panel’s recommendation. The order is, however, awaited. The tenure of the Director, of CBI is fixed for two years.
When approached, Sood refused to comment. Besides Sood, the names of Sudhir Saxena (DGP Madhya Pradesh) and Taj Haasan (chief of Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guards. New Delhi) were on the list of the next CBI Director. He is the senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer in the country belonging to the 1986 batch.
The Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) chief Samant Goel, a 1984 batch Punjab cadre IPS officer was given a one-year extension up to June 30, this year. Sood will replace the incumbent Director, of CBI, Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, whose two-year tenure ends on May 25.
He belongs to the 1985 batch of IPS. He is the third IPS officer from Karnataka cadre to be appointed as Director, CBI after Joginder Singh (July 31, 1996-June 30, 1997) and DR Karthikeyan (January 31, 1998- March 31, 1998).
Sood belongs to Himachal Pradesh. He was appointed the DG&IGP, Karnataka on February 1, 2020 and was due for superannuation in May 2024.
Being an alumnus of IIT-Delhi, he is known to incorporate technology in old school policing to make it more effective in handling the new age crimes, law and order challenges and rendering easy access to police services for the common man.
His contribution to using technology to ease Bengaluru’s infamous traffic snarls is well known.