Was ‘hurt’ when dropped from CBI chief’s race: Neeraj Kumar

Former Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar on Monday said he was “hurt” when he was not selected to the panel of officers running for the prestigious post of CBI director only on the basis of “frivolous complaints”.

“I met the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and registered my concern. My name was being dropped only because of frivolous complaints made by some persons,” he said at a function at the launch of his book Dial D for Don. 

Kumar, a 1976-batch IPS officer who retired in July 2013, said there was a need for streamlining the procedure of checking such frivolous complaints so that “honest officers are not punished for no fault of theirs”.

“I was one of the senior officials who could have been included in the panel for CBI director’s post. But my name was dropped following a series of false complaints. A view was taken in Central Vigilance Commissioner that why an officer against whom there are so many complaints be included.

“Therefore, I was dropped and of course I was hurt by it.

I was perhaps the first serving officer who went to court against it,” he said, explaining the series of events that unfolded then. His batchmate Ranjit Sinha was chosen as CBI director.

Kumar alleged that the complaints were mainly from a government official and one arms dealer against whom he had carried out through investigations and charge-sheeted.

The function had former diplomat K C Singh as one of the speakers who narrated his side of stories on various operations carried out along with Kumar, who was serving as Joint Director in the CBI then.

Talking about underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, Singh said after his tenure in Abu Dhabi had finished, he was tipped for a post as India’s High Commissioner in Pakistan.