Collegium on CBI chief selection will negate criticism:CBI Dir

Underlining that Ranjit Sinha's selection as the new CBI head was done in a fair and transparent manner as per Supreme Court guidelines, Singh, whose tenure ends on November 30, said the idea of collegium was mooted by the agency itself.

The proposed collegium will have the Prime Minister, leader of Opposition and Chief Justice of India among others.

Sinha's appointment has attracted controversy after BJP demanded to annul it contending that the Select Committee on Lokpal had suggested that such appointments should be done through a collegium method.

"This was proposed to ensure that future directors are insulated from the allegation of being the choice of the government alone, even though the present selection is as per the procedure mandated by the Supreme Court is absolutely fair and transparent," Singh said here.

Acknowledging that successfully putting the agency's point of view in the Lokpal debate remained one of his achievements, he said, "We are happy to note that Select Committee has endorsed this (collegium) view and I am sure that successive directors will look forward to a healthy and meaningful relationship with the Lokpal."

The outgoing director, whose two-year-long innings began with the 2G scam probe in 2010, said he had also suggested increasing the tenure of the CBI chief to five years.

"And if they cannot increase it to five years, I think it should be at least increased to three years," he said.

Asserting that CBI has successfully investigated and prosecuted cases against so-called high and mighty, Singh said baseless allegations of bias against the CBI and its director are totally unfounded, misconceived and unfortunate. (MORE)