A high-level committee comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi is expected to meet next week, likely on May 12, to decide the next director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), people aware of the developments said on Wednesday.
A list of senior officers of the Indian Police Service (IPS) from 1989 to 1992 batches is prepared by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) for a high-level committee to consider for the desired post.
Among those who are likely to feature in the list and be seen as strong contenders are 1989 batch officer and current head of Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), Parag Jain; 1989- Madhya Pradesh batch cadre officer Ajay Kumar Sharma; 1990- Batch Officers Shatrujit Singh Kapoor of Haryana and Sadanand Det, currently Maharashtra DGP; 1991 batch officers JP Singh, now Director General, CRPF, and Piyush Anand, Director General, National Disaster Response Force; and 1992 batch officer Satish Gulcha, currently Delhi Police Commissioner, among others.
However, current director Pravin Sood, who is already heading the premier probe agency and is serving a one-year extension beyond his scheduled two-year term, is also vying for another extension, officials said.
Under the leadership of Sood, who has led the agency since May 2023, the CBI successfully secured extraditions in the cases of Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi, and returned nearly 150 fugitives from foreign jurisdictions.
The agency has also strengthened its focus on core tasks over the past three years, including registering corruption cases and completing investigations within a year.
