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Onkar Singh in New Delhi
The three-member panel headed by Chief Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal to decide on the new director of the Central Bureau of Investigation has sent its recommendations to the Government of India.
"We have shortlisted three officers of the Indian Police Service and sent our recommendation to the Union government. Now it is for the government to approve one of them and announce its decision," Vittal told rediff.com on Thursday.
Vittal refused to disclose the names on the list. "We have sent our recommendations. There are two other members on the panel, the secretary for home and the secretary for personnel. If any other source is willing to spill the beans, I have no problem, but I am not telling you," he quipped.
Twenty-five IPS officers belonging to the 1965 and 1966 batches were interviewed for the post. Among them were H J Dora, director general of the Andhra Pradesh police, R Rajagopal, the Tamil Nadu police chief, CBI Special Director P C Sharma, Gujarat police chief K Chakravarty, and Delhi Police Commissioner Ajai Raj Sharma.
Union Home Minister L K Advani is reportedly backing Commissioner Sharma, though he is a year junior to most of the others. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is said to be backing Dora.
The third favourite for the post is P C Sharma, who as a serving CBI officer would find it easy to step into the shoes of R K Raghavan, who retires at the end of the month. The fact that the Government of India has asked the Supreme Court to relax its guidelines for appointing the CBI director indicates, according to insiders, that Sharma may be preferred over the others.
According to the guidelines laid down in the Vineet Narain case, the new CBI director must have two years of service ahead of him.
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