Government May Replace Cbi Chief

The government may replace Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director Joginder Singh in spite of his announcement of the decision to charge Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (JD) president Laloo Prasad Yadav and Union minister Chandradeo Prasad Verma in the Rs 950 crore fodder scam.

A government official, who had earlier maintained that Singh's haste in getting his office opened on a Sunday to take a decision and the alleged leak to the media was a move to pre-empt his removal from the post, yesterday maintained that the government's search for a replacement was still on.

Though the name of R C Sharma is being mentioned as the most likely replacement, officials say that an outsider may also be considered for the post. Sharma, a special director, is number two man in the CBI.

According to the official, the shifting of information and broadcasting secretary Yogesh Chandra as the animal husbandry secretary on Wednesday was also part of the government's response to what he termed as a planned episode, including Joginder Singh's decision, its leakage to media, and the letter written by Leader of Opposition Atal Behari Vajpayee to President Shanker Dayal Sharma.

Chandra was said to be directly involved in the news being telecast on Doordarshan after Singh took the decision to charge Yadav. Chandra is considered close to the present information and broadcasting minister C M Ibrahim who is known as the right-hand man of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda. The former Prime Minister has been sulking ever since the United Front (UF) dumped him for I K Gujral.

Ibrahim is also now set to lose information and broadcasting ministry to his party colleague S Jaipal Reddy, who is not even a member of Parliament.

Reddy was sworn in yesterday evening as a cabinet minister.

UF sources yesterday said that a link has been found between some disgruntled leaders in the coalition and an important functionary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and it is being said that important government document relating to some sensitive CBI and other cases may have travelled to the BJP through this route. Atal Behari Vajpayee's letter to the President has already caused embarrassment to the BJP leader who yesterday issued an explanation to the media.

The government is sure to attract a lot of criticism in changing the CBI director at this point of time as Yadav is the president of the party to which the Prime Minister belongs.

The government's argument in replacing Singh is that it is not the Central Bureau of Investigatio director who files chargesheets against the accused and changing the director would not affect any of the ongoing CBI cases.