Who is new CBI chief Praveen Sood and what’s his history with DK Shivakumar?

Karnataka Director General of Police Praveen Sood has been appointed as the next director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, a government order said on Sunday.  The 59-year-old has been appointed to the post for a period of two years from the date of taking charge after Subodh Kumar Jaiswal completes his tenure on May 25.

Praveen Sood's nomination was approved by a high-level committee that included Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, and Leader of the Opposition Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

Sood is a 1986-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Karnataka cadre and the senior-most IPS officer in the country after Jaiswal.

Sood has an impressive educational background. He is an alumna of IIT-Delhi, IIM-Bangalore and Syracuse University in New York.  The officer, who was scheduled to retire in 2024, will now have a fixed two-year tenure.  Currently the director general of police in Karnataka, Sood was earlier superintendent of police of Bellary and Raichur districts, deputy commissioner of police (law and order) and additional commissioner of police (traffic) in Bengaluru City, and commissioner of police of Mysore City.  The IPS officer has also served as a police advisor to the government of Mauritius.

His initiatives to use technology to better traffic management and provide efficient services to citizens have earned him awards such as the National E-Governance Gold Award for "Most innovative use of technology for traffic management" in 2011 and the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award in 2006.

During his tenure as additional director general of police (computer wing), Sood oversaw the challenging assignment to implement the Criminal Tracking Network System in Karnataka for real-time monitoring and sharing of information by connecting police stations with the central network.

In March, Karnataka Congress chairman DK Shivakumar called DGP Praveen Sood a "nalayak" and pledged to take action against him if his party was elected to power. The Congress party won Karnataka by a wide majority, and DK Shivakumar is a CM candidate for the party. However, Praveen Sood will relocate to Delhi to take over as CBI director for the next two years.

DK Shivakumar said in March that the DGP was favouring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state. He claimed that while Sood was in charge of the Karnataka Police, around 25 cases were filed against Congress leaders but none against BJP leaders.

Also Read: Karnataka DGP Praveen Sood appointed new CBI Director for two years