Jaiswal's appointment smacks of attempt to destabilise Thackeray govt: Explosive letter to PM

On a day when IPS officer Subodh Kumar Jaiswal took over as the new director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday, he got a mixed “welcome” in the form of a letter written by T. Rajah Balaji, a superintendent of police in the CBI academy, to Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that his appointment smacks of an attempt to misuse the post to destabilise Uddhav Thackeray government in Maharashtra.

R. Rajah Balaji has spent more than two decades in the CBI and is a recipient of the President's police medal for distinguished service . He joined the agency as a direct recruit at the level of Deputy superintendent of police and is currently serving as superintendent of police at the CBI academy in Ghaziabad. He has handled critical probes like the Mecca Masjid case and was instrumental in arresting Swami Aseemanand, who was later acquitted in the case. The CBI probe in the matter courted controversy after questions were raised in the manner in which the case was investigated. 

Balaji had earlier written a letter to former interim director Nageshwar Rao in 2019 saying the order to send him to Ghaziabad was illegal. He reminded Rao that he had complained against him to then director Alok Verma in 2017, which resulted in this action against him. Quoting Shakespeare, he said: "There is some soul of goodness in things evil/Would men observingly distill it out.”

Balaji's letter may give ammunition to the opposition at a time when the Modi government is trying to steer clear of any controversy regarding its choice of CBI director. Balaji's letter, dated May 25, was sent as an advance copy to the high-powered select committee before it sat down to decide on the candidature. But it did not deter the selection panel from going ahead with Jaiswal's appointment.

However, the letter has fuelled speculation once again whether the delay in the director's appointment paved way for Jaiswal, since his seniors in the police service—Rakesh Asthana and Y.C. Modi—became ineligible due to a "six month" rule.

While peers praised Jaiswal's credentials, Balaji, in his five-page letter, cited intelligence inputs from reliable sources saying that his candidature for the post is allegedly "manoeuvered principally for enabling him to misuse the post of Director, CBI, for destabilising and delodging the government headed by Uddhav Thackeray in Maharashtra at the behest of Devendra Fadnavis, former chief minister under whom he had served as DGP."

In his explosive letter, Balaji claimed that "this would be undertaken by issuing directions to subordinate officers handling the anti-corruption investigations into allegations of bribery by the former home minister of Maharashtra and others, which would be in what jurists regard as "the grey hole" of the law."

The CBI is currently conducting a probe against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh in an alleged corruption case. The murky case will be one of the first priorities for the new boss of the CBI. The agency is in the middle of legal proceedings after the Maharashtra government challenged two paragraphs of the CBI FIR about reinstatement of suspended police officer Sachin Waze and the alleged influence over transfer of police officers by the Maharashtra home department. Waze was arrested by the NIA that is probing the Ambani bomb scare and Hiren murder case.

IPS officers in Mumbai recall Jaiswal, known to be in the good books of NSA Ajit Doval, as a good officer who had a tenuous relationship with the state government. Even though he served as the DGP of Maharashtra, he was sidelined in some ways, said an officer. He wanted to follow the Maharashtra police Act in letter and spirit but it is said that he did not have a say in appointments and other matters. The central deputation of Jaiswal was seen as a relief for him in police circles.

Balaji, however, said Jaiswal had "insufficient experience in the "investigation" of criminal cases, let alone, anti-corruption." "Therefore, there is no way of assessing his "integrity" shown by him in such matters as required by the criteria laid down by the Supreme Court," he wrote in his letter. He also said, "Subodh Jaiswal has abundant experience serving in intelligence agencies," but "the past experience has been that officers serving in intelligence agencies have difficulty in understanding the evidence as required by the Indian Evidence Act, as they tend to conflate what counts or passes for as "evidence" in intelligence operations as "evidence" also for legal processes."

Balaji said he has written the letter with "heart felt pain" and as a matter of serving public interest and consulted only his conscience and not any one in the bureau. It is learnt that Balaji, who is in his 50s, wasn't expecting a response, but wanted to put on record his observations in the matter.

While no action has so far been taken regarding his letter, Jaiswal has begun his stint taking charge in the office of the CBI and preparing to take stock of the matters pending before the central agency.

The new director has his plate full at the moment. Apart from its probe into the high-profile corruption case in Maharashtra, the CBI is probing the Narada sting operation case in West Bengal where it has recently arrested four leaders of the Trinamool Congress leading to a showdown with chief minister Mamata Banerjee who landed at the CBI office in Kolkata seeking arrest and accusing the Centre of political vendetta. The CBI is also probing the multi-crore Saradha and Rose Valley scams.

Back in Mumbai, the CBI, which has been probing actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death, has to take a call on whether to file a closure report. The further course of action will be decided under Jaiswal.

Meanwhile, the disappearance of Mehul Choksi, the key accused in the multi-crore PNB scam, on May 23 has put the CBI sleuths on their toes. Chasing the fugitive and extradition of business tycoons like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi from the UK will be high on the priority list of Jaiswal who completes his two-year long tenure in 2023, a year before the big general elections.