200 CBI staffers posted at units for over 10 yrs shifted

NEWDELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has transferred as many as 200 employees -- lower division clerks (LDCs), upper division clerks (UDCs), crime assistants and office superintendents -- as part of what it terms a rotation exercise under which any official posted at a station for more than 10 years, is shifted to a different unit.

Confirming the development, CBI spokesperson Nitin Wakankar said on Monday: “It is part of an exercise carried out to rotate the personnel who have remained in the same post for extended periods”. The transfers were effected at 10 stations and units in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, Ranchi, Bengaluru and Chandigarh.

According to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named, CBI director Rishi Kumar Shukla and other top officials of the agency believed that the many officers had been posted in units/branches for a very long time and their conduct and work culture was “severely affecting the discipline of the agency”.

To be sure, this is the first time in several decades that the agency has transferred such a large number of employees.

CBI joint director (administration) A K Bhatnagar on August 21, wrote to the heads of all the zones/branches (HoZs) asking them to identify at least three such employees who could be moved in each branch and also indicate the names of officers who needed to be retained in the branches.

After the names were forwarded to the director’s office, around 200 personnel from lower ranks in different units were moved through several orders issued on September 20.

LDCs, UDCs, crime assistants and office superintendents usually assist investigators in most of the paperwork.

Those who have been transferred were mainly posted in units such as anti-corruption, vigilance, special crimes, economic offences, and policy.

The top brass of the CBI has long felt that employees posted in a certain unit for a long time have access to important information/data, which should be avoided in any agency investigating high-profile cases, the people familiar with the matter added.

On September 23, 16 other sub-inspectors were transferred on September 23 to different units but another CBI official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, claimed these moves were not part of the rotation exercise.