Raghavan hands over charge

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 30. The CBI Director, Mr. R. K. Raghavan, retired from service today, handing over the charge of the post he held for 27 months to the Special Director, Mr. P. C. Sharma.

A seasoned investigator and by far the most experienced hand in the agency, Mr. Sharma was appointed by the Ministry of Personnel to ``hold the charge of the post of Director, CBI, in addition to his duties until further orders.'' In a sense, Mr. Sharma will be ``acting director'' till further orders, bringing back memories of Dr. Trinath Mishra's tenure as ``acting director'' which began on March 31, 1998 and went on for nearly a year till January 4, 1999.

Belonging to the 1966 batch of the IPS, Mr. Sharma began as an officer in Assam and Meghalaya cadre and served in various sensitive districts such as Nalbari, Kamrup and Goalpara as Superintendent of Police and DIG. He had a brief stint as the Director-General of Police, Sikkim in 1997. He has spent nearly 21 years with the CBI working in different capacities as SP, DIG, Joint Director, Additional Director and Special Director.

Asked to comment on the prevailing confusion over choosing his successor, Mr. Raghavan said the selection procedure for the CBI director had been laid down by the Supreme Court and brushed aside the present state of affairs as ``minor hiccups'' till the system was finetuned in due course of time.

On the legal challenges being thrown at the Government by some senior IPS officers aspiring for the post, he said: ``It only goes to show how important and prestigious this job is. It is the dream of every senior IPS officer to either head the Intelligence Bureau or the CBI at some point of time.''

Describing his tenure as a ``very satisfying experience'', Mr. Raghavan said at times he found himself ``racing against time'' to complete investigations or tie up loose ends.

Later, Mr. Sharma said the interaction of the CBI with the judiciary had been enhanced during the recent times and a great deal was achieved in removing delays in investigations. ``We will try and speed up the cases pending with the agency and also further develop our cybercrime investigation unit, brainchild of Mr. Raghavan,'' he said.

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