Ending days of suspense, the government on Thursday appointed 1979 batch IPS officer and Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma as the new director of the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Verma belongs to the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre.
The post of the CBI chief had been vacant for over a month after Anil Sinha retired on December 2. Since then, Gujarat cadre IPS Officer Rakesh Asthana has served as the interim chief of the central probe agency.
"The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved the appointment of Alok Verma as the new CBI director. His appointment will be for a period of two years from the date of assumption of charge of his office," said an official release.
The three member selection committee has Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Chief Justice of India Justice J.S. Khehar as its members.
During his service spanning more than three decades, Verma has served in a number of positions in Delhi Police including joint commissioner of crime branch, special CP (intelligence), deputy commissioner of police (south district) besides others. For the last seven months he has been the commissioner of police.
He has also served as director general of Tihar jail and police chief of Mizoram before being appointed as the Delhi police chief on February 29, 2016.
The selection of the new CBI director got mired in controversy after Kharge protested against the manner in which the second-in-command in CBI and the main contender for the top job (according to seniority and experience) Rupak Kumar Dutta was moved to the home ministry days before Sinha completed his two year tenure in December last.
