Senior IPS officer Subodh Kumar Jaiswal on Wednesday took over as the 31st director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), a post which had been lying vacant since February.
The 58-year-old Maharashtra cadre Indian Police Service (IPS) officer joined duty at the CBI headquarters in a less significant case due to the COVID-19 epidemic, a day after the Ministry of Personnel issued orders for his appointment. He will have a fixed tenure of two years as the CBI chief.
However, Jaiswal’s appointment as head of India’s premier investigative agency is unlikely to be favorable to the Maharashtra government. The officer, a former Maharashtra DGP, had allegedly sought a central deputation last year when differences arose over the transfer and posting of police officers with the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Agadi government in the state.
According to a report by News Paper, Jaiswal was opposing the lobbying by officials for posting with former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh.
As CBI chief, he will oversee one of the cases, which involves Deshmukh, allegedly using police officers from Mumbai’s bar and restaurant owners and allegedly illegal collection to favor officers in posting and transfer Is seeking
As Maharashtra’s police chief, Jaiswal was also unhappy with some transfers of IPS officers and refused to sign the transfer list put forward by the government. Later, former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had alleged that Jaiswal chose a deputation to the central services in his post as the state’s chief of police as he was frustrated with the functioning of the MVA government, as Moneycontrol noted.
Under the supervision of Jaiswal as the DGP of Maharashtra, the Elgar Parishad and Bhima Koregaon violence cases were investigated before being transferred to the CBI in 2020.
Jaiswal has had a 35-year policing career so far. He started his career in 1986 as an Additional Superintendent of Police, Amravati, Maharashtra. Later, he waged several anti-Naxal operations in Gadchiroli as the Superintendent of Police of the district.
Subsequently, in Maharashtra, he was in charge of the Special Investigation Team (SIT); Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP), Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Mumbai; ACP, Central Range, Mumbai; IGP Amravati Range and Commissioner of Police, Brihan Mumbai.
Jaiswal Abdul Karim was at the helm of an investigation into the Telgi stamp paper scandal, as the court probed a court-directed inquiry into the head of the Maharashtra State Reserve Police Force, which was later taken over by the CBI.
He was also part of the Mumbai ATS team investigating the 2006 Malegaon bombings case.
He also reportedly had a disagreement with the Maharashtra government over his proposal for compulsory posting of IPS officers in a Maoist stronghold. The idea did not get an encouraging response from the state government, PTI said.
Jaiswal, a resident of Sindri, Dhanbad, did his schooling from the CMRI branch of De Nobili School in Jharkhand, where his father had a flourishing business.
He later graduated in English (Hons) from DAV College, Chandigarh and an MBA from Punjab University.