PM-Led Panel To Meet On January 24 To Decide On New CBI Director

A special panel led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet next week to pick the successor to Alok Verma, whose controversial removal from the top post of the premier Central Bureau of Investigation last week has created a huge political storm. The decision comes a day after Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to PM Modi, asking him to bring key documents related to the sacking in public domain.

The meeting of the special panel - comprising the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India and the Leader of the opposition - will be held on January 24.

It is not known if Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi will attend the meeting, He had recused himself from the January 10 meet - where the decision was taken to remove Mr Verma from the post - as he was part of the Supreme Court bench that passed an order reinstating the officer.

Justice AK Sikri had replaced him on the committee, and had cast the deciding vote that removed Mr Verma barely 48 hours after his reinstatement. The panel's decision was based on a report by the anti-corruption watchdog Central Vigilance Commission, on allegations against Mr Verma.

The officer, the committee said, "had not acted with the integrity expected of him".

Mr Kharge, who put up a dissent note flagging how the main allegations against Mr Verma were unsubstantiated, wrote to PM Modi yesterday, asking that the government make the vigilance report public, along with the one by Justice AK Patnaik, who monitored the investigation.

The vigilance report had been submitted to the Supreme Court in a sealed cover. Mr Kharge said even Justice Patnaik had commented on how there was no evidence of corruption against Mr Verma and that the action of the committee was "very, very hasty".

Alok Verma said he was "sad" that he was transferred on the basis of "false, unsubstantiated and frivolous allegations made by only one person, who was inimical to him". The official, who was retiring by the end of this month, quit the day after the removal, refusing to take charge as the Chief of Fire Services.