CBI officer writes to PM, questions selection of short-listed candidates for CBI director’s post

In a letter addressed to the PM and the CJI, an SP-rank officer of CBI, T Rajah Balaji, listed several reasons for his strong objection to the selection of the three candidates for CBI chief’s post.

T Rajah Balaji, a SP-rank officer in the Central Bureau of Investigation, has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the selection of three officers as candidates for the next CBI director. On Monday, the PM-led panel shortlisted Subodh Jaiswal, VS Kaumudi and KR Chandra as frontrunners for the post. In his letter, which has also been marked to the Chief Justice of India, Balaji has questioned the rule of six months applied during the selection process. It has been widely reported that during the high-level committee meeting, IPS officers Rakesh Asthana and YC Modi, who had less than six months left to retire from service, were eliminated. “It is necessary to advert to your kind attention that the three IPS officers, reportedly short-listed, are in contravention of the law laid down by the Hon’ble Supreme Court and even otherwise, professionally unsuitable for heading the CBI,” Balaji wrote in the letter to the prime minister, listing several reasons for his strong objection to the nomination of the above-mentioned officers.