IF Bureau
Outgoing Enforcement Directorate chief Sanjay Kumar Mishra may have to shoulder another important responsibility after demitting his current office on September 15.
According to government sources, the Centre is deliberating on creation of a new post of Chief Investigation Officer of India (CIO), to which the chiefs of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the ED will report.
This new setup will be along the lines of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), whom the three services of the Indian Armed Forces report to, and the National Security Advisor (NSA) to whom the nation’s top intelligence agencies report.
Just like the CDS and NSA, the CIO will report directly to the Prime Minister.
As the government reckons there is a lot of overlap in the areas of investigation of the ED (which focuses primarily on financial fraud, including cases related to money laundering and FEMA violations) and the CBI (which deals with cases of corruption and other economic offences), sources say, a CIO heading the two agencies would bring better synergy between them.
Mishra – who has been ED chief since 2018, thanks to the two extensions he got from the Centre – is the frontrunner for the new post, which will be in the rank of Secretary to the Government of India.
As per these sources, the ED shall continue to function under the Department of Revenue of the Union Ministry of Finance and the CBI shall remain under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. However, the operational supervision of the two agencies would be moved to the CIO.
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