IPS officer Rakesh Asthana appointed as CBI Special Director

Rakesh Asthana was on 22 October 2017 appointed as Special Director of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). His appointment was approved by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet.

A 1984- batch Gujarat cadre IPS officer, Asthana is currently posted as Additional Director of CBI.

About Rakesh Asthana
• In December 2016, Asthana was named as interim CBI Director by the Union Government.
• While serving as SP in CBI in 1994, he handled the investigation of Bihar's fodder scam.
• Asthana arrested RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in 1997 for the scam and was part of the investigation till 2001.
• He has also been part of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the Gujarat government to probe the Godhra train burning incident.
• He also served as the Commissioner of Police of Vadodara and Surat.

Other Appointments
The other IPS officers promoted by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet were Gurbachan Singh and Arvind Kumar as Special Directors of  Intelligence Bureau (IB), Deepak Kumar Mishra and Sudeep Lakhtakia as Special DGs in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

Rajesh Ranjan and AP Maheshwari were appointed as Special DGs in the Border Security Force (BSF). Besides, Javeed Ahmed, a 1984-batch IPS officer, was given the rank of special DG at the Central Government.