Who is Praveen Sood, the new CBI Director appointed by a PM Modi-led panel?

Sood is the senior-most IPS officer in the country after Jaiswal. His appointment comes soon after recent allegations against him by Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) head DK Shivakumar, who is now a top contender for the Chief Ministerial post in the state following his party’s win in the Legislative Assembly elections on Saturday.

Who is Praveen Sood?

Sood is currently the Director General and Inspector General of Police, Karnataka State, and is posted in Bengaluru. His website states that he is an alumni of IIT Delhi and IIM-Bangalore.

After joining the bureaucracy, he started his career as Asstt. Superintendent of Police, Mysuru in 1989. He served as Superintendent of Police, Bellary and Raichur before getting posted to Bangalore city as Deputy Commissioner of Police, Law and Order.

In 1999, he proceeded to foreign deputation as Police Advisor to the Government of Mauritius for 3 years. He then took a sabbatical for pursuing Post Graduation in Public Policy and Management from IIM and the Maxwell School of Governance, Syracuse University, in New York.

In his career, he has held the posts of Commissioner of Police of Mysuru city and Additional Commissioner of Police of Traffic, Bengaluru.

“He has been decorated with Chief Minister’s Gold Medal for excellence in service in 1996, Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 2002 & President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service in 2011,” the website states. Sood has also been appointed the Managing Director of Karnataka State Police Housing Corporation and the Principal Secretary of the Home Department.

He has served as the Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru city, the Director General of Police, CID, Economic offences & Special Units. Though the appointment was for a one-year term, he was transferred by then CM Siddaramaiah after seven months. It was also notable as Sood superseded Ashit Mohan Prasad, a 1985-batch officer.

What has DK Shivakumar alleged against Praveen Sood?

In the run up to the Karnataka assembly election, several cases were filed against Congress workers, including some of the cases pertaining to the party’s “PayCM” anti-corruption campaign against then Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. Shivakumar alleged that Sood and his officials were deliberately targeting the Congress workers and turning a blind eye to the actions of the BJP cadre in the state.

Earlier, in March, a controversy erupted after BJP workers put up an arch in Mandya to honour Vokkaliga chieftains Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda, who according to some, killed 18th-century Mysuru ruler Tipu Sultan. However, many historians contest this claim. The arch was built just before PM Narendra Modi’s visit to the city.

As no case was registered against those who erected the contentious arch, Shivakumar took a potshot at Sood, saying, “At least 25 cases have been registered against us but why have no cases been registered against BJP workers? This DGP (Praveen Sood) is a ‘nalayak (good for nothing)’. Let our government come. We will take action against him. The Congress had also written to the Election Commission to remove him. I thought he (Sood) was a respected man. Immediately, a case should be registered against him and he should be arrested”.

The Congress leader also vowed to take action against the 59-year-old police officer if the party returned to power in the state and labelled him an “agent of the BJP”.

Who appoints the CBI director?

The panel that selects the CBI chief consists of the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition and Chief Justice of India. The process of appointment was established by the Supreme Court’s Vineet Narain judgement (1997), and the changes made to The Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946 by The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013.

On Sunday, The Indian Express reported that while Modi and CJI DY Chandrachud agreed to appoint Sood as the next CBI chief, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who is the third member of the panel, opposed the police officer’s selection.

Sources told the newspaper that the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had earlier sent a list of nearly 115 names for the CBI chief’s post, including some officers who weren’t empanelled. Chowdhury is learnt to have mentioned this, and also argued that he had not received the service records, personal details and integrity documents of the officers on the list. The Congress leader is also learnt to have said the government should consider women officers and those from the minority communities.

Some other names that were considered for the post were Taj Hassan, Director General, Fire Service, Civil Defence and Home Guards and Madhya Pradesh DGP Sudhir Kumar Saxena.