CBI chief selection procedure not being correctly followed: Mallikarjun Kharge in letter to PM

NEW DELHI: Congress floor leader Mallikarjun Kharge, in a strongly worded letter, has criticised the manner in which the government last week appointed Rakesh Asthana, a Gujarat-cadre officer, as acting chief of CBI.

Kharge, according to sources, charged the PM with not calling the meeting of the committee constituted to select the CBI chief, and alleged it was part of a plot to “facilitate the appointment of a junior officer” to the top post.

Kharge, a member of the threemember search team for appointing CBI chief, is learnt to have complained in his letter to the PM that the entire process of selection was being manipulated.

“The entire process has been vitiated and being manipulated to preempt the decision to be arrived at, in the meeting of the selection committee.”