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Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 15
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge today wrote to PM Narendra Modi terming the appointment of an interim CBI chief illegal and seeking an immediate meeting of the high-powered committee tasked with appointing a full-time CBI director.
Accusing the government of being scared of having the CBI headed by an independent director, Kharge, one of the three members of the selection committee besides PM Modi and the Chief Justice of India or his representative, said, “The actions of the government indicate it is scared of having the CBI headed by an independent director. The government should come clean by releasing the CVC report, the report of Justice Patnaik and the minutes of the meeting held on January 10, 2019, so that the public can draw its own conclusions in the matter.”
In a two-page letter to the PM, Kharge said the appointment of an interim director was illegal and against Sections 4 A(1) and Section 4 A (3) of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act.
The Congress is arguing that the post of an interim director does not exit legally.
In his letter, Kharge also brought up the recent remarks of Justice Patnaik in the matter of the unflattering CVC report about former CBI Director Alok Verma whom the high-powered selection committee removed from the post on January 10 by two votes to one (PM and CJI representative voting for Verma’s removal and Kharge voting against it).
Kharge had on January 10 dissented saying Verma should first be heard in the matter. Today, the Congress leader cited the remarks of Justice Patnaik, who supervised the CVC enquiry against Verma, and said, “The media has widely reported that Justice Patnaik has said there was no evidence of corruption against Verma and what the CVC said cannot be the final word and the action of the high-powered committee was very hasty. Such huge embarrassment could have been avoided had the committee decided to independently examine the report of the CVC, the report of Justice Patnaik, the submission of Alok Verma in his defence and reached its own conclusion.”
Kharge, who had dissented even when Verma was initially appointed the CBI chief, today said he had done so because the appointment did not satisfy the conditions under the CBI Act.
The government had attacked Kharge as a “serial dissenter” when he objected to the removal of Verma by the high-powered committee.
Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted on January 10 taking a swipe at Kharge’s “amazing consistency” in dissenting when Verma was appointed the CBI chief by the committee and again when he was removed from the post by the same committee.