CBI lodges FIR against its law officer

NEWDELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday registered a first information report (FIR) against one of its law officers for allegedly fudging her annual performance appraisal reports by forging the signatures of a superior.

According to the FIR, a copy of which was seen by HT, Beena Raizada joined the probe agency at its Patna office as a senior public prosecutor in May, 2014.

She became the agency’s deputy legal adviser in 2015 and was transferred to Delhi in January 2017.

“In the office of DOP (director of prosecution, chief law officer of the agency), she personally submitted her three APARS (annual performance appraisal reports) together for three years between 2014 and 2017 along with assessment notes for the same period bearing signatures of Sh VK Singh, then DIG/HOB, CBI, ACB, Patna,” states the FIR.

In all the three assessment notes, Raizada’s performance was graded as “excellent” but during a preliminary inquiry by the CBI, Singh said he hadn’t signed the appraisal reports, the FIR read.

The DIG also stated that Raizada was on leave for 90 days during 2014-2015 and there was “no question of (him) writing an assessment in her favour”, according to the FIR.

Singh added that he went back to his parent cadre of Rajasthan in 2015 and therefore could not have written an assessment in Raizada’s favour in 2016, according to the FIR. Besides, the annual appraisal report of an officer at the rank of DLA is signed by a joint director rank official and not the DIG, the FIR added.

“It is prima facie established that the signatures of Sh VK Singh on the said assessment notes are forged with the intention of getting her APARS processed favourably,” the FIR read.