New Delhi: Karnataka Director General of Police Praveen Sood has been appointed as the next director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, a government order recently. The 59-year-old has been appointed to the post for two years from the date of taking charge after Subodh Kumar Jaiswal completes his tenure on May 25, according to officials.
Sood is a 1986-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Karnataka cadre and the senior-most IPS officer in the country after Jaiswal.
Sood also faced criticism from DK Shivakumar, Congress Karnataka president, who accused the state police of unfairly targeting Congress workers while ignoring the actions of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Shivakumar warned that if the Congress party returned to power, it would take action against Sood and label him as a “BJP agent”.
His name was cleared on Saturday in a meeting of a high-powered committee comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
Chowdhury, a Congress leader, had reportedly given a dissent note on the selection of Sood as the next CBI director. However, there was no official word on it.
In the order, the Department of Personnel and Training said, “Approval of the competent authority is hereby conveyed to the appointment of Praveen Sood, IPS (KN:86) as Director, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a period of two years from the date of assumption of charge of the office vice Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, IPS (MH:85) consequent upon completion of his tenure.” Sood has an impressive educational background. He is an alumna of IIT-Delhi, IIM-Bangalore, and Syracuse University in New York.
The officer, who was scheduled to retire in 2024, will now have a fixed two-year tenure. Currently the director general of police in Karnataka, Sood was earlier superintendent of police of Bellary and Raichur districts, deputy commissioner of police (law and order) and additional commissioner of police (traffic) in Bengaluru City, and commissioner of police of Mysore City.
The IPS officer has also served as police advisor to the government of Mauritius.
PTI