Alok Verma - the CBI director caught in the middle of a political storm

The CBI Director Alok Verma, who is scheduled to remain in office till January next year, is engaged in a bitter fight with Special Director of the agency Rakesh Asthana and both sides have been levelling allegation against each other in public, a trend which is unheard-of in the history of 77 years of India's premier investigating agency.

The Supreme Court on Friday heard CBI chief Alok Verma's plea challenging the order divesting him of his duties -- and sending him on leave -- in view of the corruption allegations against him. The court is likely to consider the report of the Central Vigilance Commission with regard to an investigation of those charges. 

The CBI director has been in the crosshairs of a political tug of war ever since his appointed in 2017. 

All you need to know about Alok Verma

Alok Kumar Verma was appointed as the CBI chief in January 2017 after being shortlisted from a list of 45 candidates. The committee that appointed him included Prime Minister Narendra Modi; Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress leader in Lok Sabha; and JS Khehar, the then Chief Justice of India.

He took over as the 27th Director of the CBI on February 1, 2017.

Verma is a 1979 batch Indian Police Service officer and has been in services for close to 38 years. In all these years, he has served at 24 posts. He was the Delhi Police Commissioner before being appointed as CBI chief.

The IPS officer has also served as the Director General for Tihar prisons, police chief of Mizoram among others.

As director general of Tihar prisons, Verma had to take heat from Home Minister Rajnath Singh after the airing of the controversial BBC Documentary 'India's Daughter', which included an eye-raising interview from December 16 Delhi gangrape accused Mukesh.

Before this, he was in news in December 2016, when he recommended the promotions of 26,000 police officers, of which many had not been promoted in over 20 years.