Y C Modi likely to be picked as new CBI chief

The Haryana-born Yogesh Chander Modi (57), a 1984 batch Assam-Meghalaya IPS officer and currently chief of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), is among five officers shortlisted from among 17 for the post of the new director of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

He was brought to Delhi in May 2014 by Prime Minister Modi on forming the government as they had developed good equations reportedly during his role in the Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) probe into the 2002 Gujarat riots that gave clean chit to Modi, then chief minister, in the Gulbarga Society massacre of 69 people, including a former MP.

Modi also held the CBI's second highest post of the additional director for two years before moving to the NIA in September 2017. He had two stints in the CBI from 2002 to 2010 and again from 2015 to 2017. A BCom and LLB, he served in the Central Secretariat from 1991 to 2002.

Once the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) further reduces the list to three, it will be put up before a 3-member high powered selection panel comprising PM Modi, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge. The panel recommends one or more names and the final choice is made by the PM.

The senior most among four others shortlisted are Special Secretary (internal security Rina Mitra and Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police O P Singh as both are from the 1983 batch. The other two are Subodh Kumar Jaiswal (56) who took over as the Mumbai Police Commissioner last July and Kerala Police Chief Loknath Behera who has long stint in the CBI as SP and DIG. Both are from the 1985 batch. Jaiswal was with Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's external intelligence agency, for nine years as an additional secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat before Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis sought his services from PM Modi to head the Mumbai police.

Gujarat cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana was being groomed to head the agency, but his exit gives YC Modi an upper hand, particularly because he had held No 2 position in the CBI and has the backing of the Prime Minister.