PM-led selection panel to meet on Feb 1 to pick new CBI chief: Kharge

The next meeting of the selection committee, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to pick the new Central Bureau of Investigation director will take place on Friday, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who is also a member of the panel, said on Wednesday.

The last meeting of the panel took place on January 24 but it remained "inconclusive".

It was held at the prime minister's official residence and was attended by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Kharge, who's the Congress's leader in the Lok Sabha.

"The next meeting of the panel on selection of the CBI chief will take place on February 1 at around 6 PM," Kharge told reporters.

Modi heads the three-member panel with Kharge and Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi as its members.

At the last meeting, Kharge had sought dossiers of all the eligible officers for the post.

The post of the CBI chief has been lying vacant since January 10 after the unceremonious exit of Alok Verma, who was engaged in a bitter fight with Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana over corruption charges.

Both Verma and Asthana have accused each other of impropriety.

Verma, after being removed from the post of CBI director, was named as the Director General of Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guards -- a less significant portfolio.

Verma did not accept the offer and wrote to the government, saying he should be considered as deemed superannuated as he had completed 60 year age of superannuation.

He had taken over as the CBI chief on February 1, 2017 for a fixed two-year tenure.

M Nageshwara Rao has been working as the interim CBI chief after Verma's ouster.

Verma's resignation letter had led to a political slugfest with the opposition parties, mainly the Congress, accusing the central government of alleged interference in public institutions.

Kharge had recently written to the prime minister terming Rao's appointment as the CBI's interim chief "illegal". He had asked the government to immediately convene the meeting of the panel to decide on the new CBI chief.