Before that, the government had appointed two “controversial” IPS officers, Y.C. Modi and Arun Kumar Sharma, in senior positions in the agency. Y.C. Modi was a former member of the special investigation team that had probed the 2002 Gujarat pogrom and given Narendra Modi, then Gujarat chief minister, a clean chit in a riot case. Sharma’s name cropped up in connection with the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter investigation and also in a sting on the snoop scandal in Gujarat.
The appointments, cleared by the cabinet’s appointments committee headed by the Prime Minister, had led to resentment within a section of the agency.
“The Prime Minister’s fascination for bureaucrats from Gujarat was evident as 20 such officers were brought to Delhi within a year of his taking charge in May 2014. He trusts bureaucrats from Gujarat more than his ministerial colleagues,” said a senior IPS officer posted in North Block.
Candidates for CBI director are shortlisted by DoPT, which has administrative control over the agency and reports to the Prime Minister’s Office. The names are then sent to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) for clearance. Once approved, the names are sent to a collegium, comprising the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India or his representative and the leader of the largest Opposition party in the Lok Sabha.
The collegium discusses the names and recommends its choice, though the final decision is taken by the Prime Minister-headed appointments committee of the cabinet.
