Who is new CBI chief Praveen Sood and why DK Shivakumar vowed action against him

Karnataka director general of police (DGP) Praveen Sood was appointed as the new director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday. His name was finalised by a high-level committee comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

Sood will replace outgoing CBI director Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, whose fixed tenure ends on May 25. He will go on to chair the top central agency post for a period of two years.

A 1986-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, Sood originally hails from Himachal Pradesh and is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Delhi, Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Bangalore, and Syracuse University in New York.

His first posting after joining IPS was in Mysore in 1989. He returned to Mysore as Commissioner of Police between 2004 and 2007. During this sting, he along with his team had arrested Fahad alias Mohammed Koya from Karachi and Mohammed Ali Hussain alias Jahangir (both of the Al Badr group) amid exchange of fire on the night of October 26, 2006. The terrorists were later convicted for waging war against the nation under the provisions of the Explosive Substances Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

From 2008 to 2011, he was additional commissioner of police (Traffic) for Bengaluru. In 2013, he was appointed managing director of the Karnataka State Police Housing Corporation, during which was credited for increasing the company’s turnover from ₹160 crore to ₹282 crore in just nine months.

Apart from serving various administrative roles in Karnataka, Sood established ‘Namma 100’, an ‘Emergency Response System’, which provides 24×7 support with the help of 276 Emergency Response Vehicles (Hoysala) across Bengaluru. Sood is also responsible for the establishment of the ‘Suraksha’ App and the ‘Pink Hoyasala’ run by female officers, which is designed specifically for women and children in distress.

He was awarded with Chief Minister’s Gold Medal for excellence in service in 1996, Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 2002, and President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service in 2011, and he is also the recipient of the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award in 2006 for his contribution towards road safety & traffic management and national E-Governance Gold Award for “Most innovative use of technology for Traffic Management” in the year 2011.

ISSUE WITH DK SHIVAKUMAR

A couple of months ago, he was subjected to media attention when Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar accused him of “harbouring a bias towards the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)”. Shivakumar called the DGP ‘Nalayak’ and said that the Congress will take strict action against him, after coming to power. “He (DGP) has been in service for the last three years and how many more days will he continue to be a BJP worker? He has registered around 25 cases against Congress leaders and not even a single case against BJP leaders in the state,” Shivakumar said.

According to media reports, Congress’ Chowdhury had submitted a dissent note against the recommendation of Sood, saying that “he was not among the original panel of officers who were shortlisted for the top CBI job and his name was included at the last minute.” Sood’s appointment came a day after the BJP faced a massive defeat in Karnataka assembly elections.

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