Rakesh Asthana Appointed Director-General Of Border Security Force

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet(ACC) has appointed former special director of the Central Bureau Investigation (CBI) Rakesh Ashtana as the Director-General (DG) of the Border Security Force (BSF). He is presently posted as Director-General of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS). He is also holding additional charge of DG, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

Asthana is a 1984-batch Gujarat cadre officer. When he was SP in the CBI in 1997, he had arrested Rashtriya Janata Dal(RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in the fodder scam. He also led an SIT formed by the CBI to probe into the bank fraud by Vijay Mallya.

In 2018, the Central Government had divested both Asthana -a former Special Director of CBI and the then CBI Director Alok Verma of their powers after taking note of "the grave allegations of corruption by senior functionaries of CBI one against another, which had been widely reported in media, had vitiated the official eco-system of the organization". 

Rakesh Asthana was shunted out of CBI in 2018 after an alleged case of bribery and extortion was lodged against him. He had alleged that this was done at the behest of then CBI director Alok Verma. Verma was also asked to leave the agency and was transferred as DG Fire Services, which he never joined.

The ACC has also appointed VSK Kaumudi, who is presently working as DG, Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) as Special Secretary (Internal Security) in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Another 1986 batch IPS officer from Uttar Pradesh cadre – Jawed Akhtar has been appointed as DG Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guard.