Asthana to take charge of BSF

NEWDELHI: The Centre on Monday appointed Gujarat cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana as the new director general of the Border Security Force (BSF), according to an official order.

The 1984 batch IPS officer, currently heading the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) with additional charge of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), is set to assume full-time charge of the BSF, deployed along the 2,280-km-long border with Pakistan. S S Deswal, director general of the Indo-tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and a batchmate of Asthana, has been holding additional charge of the BSF since March. Recent military tensions along the Line of Actual Control with China and “mischievous activities” by Pakistan prompted the government to appoint a full-time BSF chief, said an official familiar with knowledge of the matter, requesting anonymity. India accuses Pakistan of attacking Indian border posts and settlements unprovoked and of trying to infiltrate members of terror groups into its territory.asthana will continue to hold additional charge of the NCB. Asthana, a former special director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and his then boss, CBI director Alok Verma, were embroiled in a bitter internecine fight in 2018 during which they levelled corruption allegations against each other. Asthana was exonerated of the charges by a court on March 7 this year. Verma was removed from his post on January 10, 2019 by a high-powered committee headed by the PM.

Appointed director general, fire service, civil defence and home guards, Verma quit the police service .