CBI director Praveen Sood gets second one-year extension | India News
New Delhi: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director Praveen Sood got a one-year extension on Wednesday, a day before his retirement on May 24, PTI reported.The interest was extended by one year in May last year. He was appointed CBI Director in May 2023 while serving as DGP of Karnataka.The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), on the recommendation of the Selection Committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the hike in interest, an order issued by the Ministry of Personnel said.The development came a day after Leader of the Opposition (LOP) Rahul Gandhi gave a strongly dissenting note on the process of selecting the next chief of the country’s premier investigative agency in a meeting that lasted just five minutes at the Prime Minister’s residence at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg.Also read: Rahul ‘Strongly Dissenting’ on Selection of Next CBI Director; The discussion ended in just 5 minutesAs LOP, Rahul is a member of the high-powered committee that selects the CBI director alongside the Prime Minister and Chief Justice of India Surya Kant. The Congress MP alleged that he was not provided with self-evaluation reports of 69 candidates and therefore did not want to take part in what he called a “biased practice”.In his two-page dissenting note, he alleged that the government had reduced the election process to a “mere formality” and that the LOP “cannot be a rubber stamp.”“By denying the Election Commission important information, the government has reduced it to a mere formality. The Leader of the Opposition is not a rubber stamp. I cannot abdicate my constitutional duty by participating in this partisan exercise. I, therefore, dissent in the strongest possible terms,” he said in his note to the Prime Minister.Rahul also accused the agency of “misusing” to “target” opposition leaders, journalists and critics.“Your government has repeatedly misused the CBI to become India’s premier investigative agency to target political opponents, journalists and critics. It is to prevent institutional capture that includes opposition leaders in election committees. Sadly, you continue to deny any meaningful role in the process,” he added.
