Delhi top cop Alok Verma was picked as the CBI chief by a three-member committee comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice JS Khehar and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday.
Verma had been a front-runner for the post of director of the CBI.
Verma is a 1979 batch IPS officer of the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory) cadre, and has served as the Director General of Tihar jail. His 11-month tenure as the police chief since BS Bassi’s removal has gone on without any controversy.
The post of CBI director has been vacant for over a month since Anil Sinha’s retirement on 2 December.
Verma is known to be media-shy with little or no Twitter activity. He has also steered clear of giving interviews as police commissioner.
He was shortlisted from a list of 45 candidates for the post. The two other top contenders were senior Union Home Ministry official Rupak Kumar Dutta and Maharashtra Director General of Police Satish Mathur.
The name of senior IPS officers Krishna Choudhary, Aruna Bahuguna and SC Mathur, among others were doing the rounds earlier as strong contenders for the top post, sources said.
Choudhary and Bahuguna are 1979 batch IPS officers of the Bihar and Telangana cadre respectively. Choudhary is Director General of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force and Bahuguna is Director of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy, Hyderabad.
Mathur, a 1981 batch IPS officer of Maharashtra cadre, is Director General of Maharshtra Police.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times and PTI.)
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