‘Selection of ex-CBI chief was faulty’

: Making an indirect reference to retired CBI Director Ranjit Sinha, former agency chief P.C. Sharma on Tuesday said his selection was faulty, given that “people knew his background”. Mr. Sinha is being probed for his meetings with several accused persons at his official residence.

At a panel discussion on “CBI: X-rayed” organised by the Delhi Administration Officers’ Academic Forum, senior Supreme Court advocate Anil Divan sought the opinion of former CBI Special Director M.L. Sharma on Mr. Sinha.

Mr. Sharma, however, refused to comment saying he was probing the matter. He heads the panel set up by the Supreme Court to investigate the alleged misdemeanours of Mr. Sinha as a CBI Director.

However, Mr. P.C. Sharma said: “Everybody knows that the selection of the former Director was faulty. People knew his background; he was then holding a junior position. People knew about the court’s oral observations in his case. Yet, he was inducted as the Director of the CBI.”

Countering Mr. Divan’s suggestion that the CBI needed to have a cadre of its own, both the retired officers said it would lead to integrity issues. Mr. M.L. Sharma pointed out that as opposed to the availability of only 60 per cent of 1,400 investigating officers, the agency required 5,000 officers to match the workload.

Mr. M.L. Sharma added that like in the Election Commission and Central Vigilance Commission, CBI chiefs should be barred from taking up post-retirement jobs.

Stating that the CBI had been abused at the Centre on many times for political objectives, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the same was done in an attempt to intimidate him.

“They raided my office. They had come looking for my files to find out if they could get something against me. But, they did not find anything,” he said.

Mr. Kejriwal said over 150 Delhi government officials were then summoned for questioning without notice, from December 15 last year to March-April. “Many officials told me, some even gave in writing, that the CBI officials would make them wait outside for a couple of hours and then, during questioning, abuse their mothers and sisters,” he said.