Background Checks, No Media: Is CBI Turning Impenetrable Under New Chief?

Oral instructions have been issued to officers to stay away from the media, and use of pen drives is restricted.

Under Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is turning into an impenetrable fortress, claim agency officials.

The intended objective of the drive is to check unauthorised leakage of the information and also secure the agency’s offices, including its headquarters in the national capital, from unauthorised access.

First, a look at the steps the agency has taken in recent months to secure its offices, especially the headquarters in the national capital.

Now, the agency has a full-fledged security wing under a Deputy Inspector-General rank officer, Gagandeep Gambhir, a 2004 batch Indian Police Service officer belonging to Gujarat cadre and serving in the agency on deputation.

No Pen Drives, Chip-Based Access Cards

Sources say the establishment of the security wing coincided with the leakage of crucial documents belonging to the agency’s probe against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. The CBI arrested one of its own sub-inspectors and a lawyer in the case.

The security wing recently issued an order banning the use of pen drives in the agency. The office order said no pen drive is to be connected with any system that is connected with the CBI network.

Now onwards, the agency will allocate external hard discs to its officers for official use and the allocation list of the discs will be recorded. Furthermore, these hard discs cannot be taken off the agency premises without prior permission.

Sources add that the agency is also planning to issue new chip-based access cards to its officers and staff.

“Use of technology is good to check unauthorised access, but we also fear that these new chip-based cards will also be used to log our movement on the agency premises,” said an agency officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

A CBI spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Besides, oral instructions have been issued to officers to stay away from the media.

“We were told that strict action, including dismissal from service, will be taken if we are found to be in unauthorised contact with media. There was no written order in this regard but we were told in uncertain terms to stay away from media,” said another officer.

CBI Is Not an Intelligence Agency

Old-timers say the CBI has a long-standing policy of disseminating information only through the designated information officer of the agency, who normally is an Indian Information Service officer and deputed to the agency from the Press Information Bureau (PIB).

But officials in the agency say it looks the Director wants to run the CBI, which is an investigation agency, like an intelligence agency.

Jaiswal has spent considerable time working in the external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) in his prior deputation tenure at the centre.

“Another plan that is still in the works is to initiate detailed background checks into the officials of the agency. First, detailed information on a prescribed form will be sought from the officials in order to verify it further. This kind of information is already sought when officials go on to work with sensitive organisations like the SPG [Special Protection Group] or intelligence agencies. The CBI, too, wants to initiate the process on the lines of such sensitive organisations,” said another officer.

At the moment, the antecedents of all officials are thoroughly checked when they come to join the agency on deputation.

Two Strong Rumours Doing Rounds

All these developments come amid two strong rumours circulating in the agency. First, Jaiswal might be shifted to R&AW as its Chief once the incumbent Samant Goel ends tenure in June this year, and second, that the current number-two in the agency, special director Praveen Sinha, a 1988 batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre, is likely to get an extension in service after retirement in April this year. Sinha served as interim Director of the agency in the period between the retirement of the previous director Rishi Kumar Shukla in February last year and the appointment of Subodh Kumar Jaiswal as a regular Director.

When Subodh Kumar Jaiswal was chosen as the director, Sinha was not eligible for consideration as director of the agency as he belonged to the 1988 batch of the IPS, and only officers belonging to batches between 1984 and 1987 were considered.

But if Jaiswal is shifted to R&AW and Sinha’s service is extended, he will be a strong contender for the top job.

Sinha was elected as a delegate to the powerful executive committee of the Interpol from Asia after a hard-fought election, in which the Ministry of External Affairs had to deploy considerable resources. He is one of the nine delegates on the committee and was elected for a three-year tenure in 2021.

“His election to the executive committee of the Interpol could be among the reasons to grant him an extension in tenure,” said a Central government bureaucrat who wished to remain anonymous.

(Rajesh Ahuja is a journalist for over two decades. He is also one of the co-founders of Pixstory, a new age social media platform. He tweets @iamrajeshahuja. This is an opinion piece, and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses, nor is responsible for them.)