Prefer to stay in the background, let my actions do the talking: new CBI chief Anil Kumar Sinha

Faced with questions on the damage done to the CBI by a recent Supreme Court order directing former CBI chief Ranjit Sinha to recuse himself from the 2G spectrum allocation scam, the new director said he had already addressed these issues in his statement.

“There are challenges, but every challenge has to be taken up. Each challenge is an opportunity to do something good. I have already made a commitment to upholding the CBI motto,” he said.

Sinha held meetings with senior officers for detailed briefings on CBI cases later in the day, sources said. On his first day as CBI director, a reshuffle of two senior officers in the agency took place. Joint director R S Bhatti in charge of Special Crimes zone was posted as Joint Director Policy, while Joint Director Nina Singh in charge of the Special Task Force has been given additional charge of Special Crimes.

Shortly after taking charge, Sinha remarked that he preferred to stay in the background and let his “actions do the talking”. Known to keep a low profile and a clean reputation, Sinha’s elevation to the top post is expected to enable a seamless transition as his previous posting was Special Director in the agency, the second-in-command in the CBI.

A Bihar cadre IPS officer of the 1979 batch, Sinha hails from Dumraon in Buxar district. His father Rana Pratap Sinha taught psychology at H D Jain College, Ara (Bhojpur). Sinha is eldest of three brothers. The new CBI chief is also related to Hindi author Acharya Shivpoojan Sahay, and spent considerable amount of time in his house while growing up, sources said.

Sinha has served as SP in several important districts in Bihar, following which he was posted as DIG in the state police’s Special Branch. Between 1998 and 2005, he was posted on central deputation in the Special Protection Group (SPG) as DIG. As IG in the SPG, he was involved in providing protection to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh.

Following his stint in the SPG, he was repatriated to Bihar. Sinha was part of a core team of the then CM Nitish Kumar, when he introduced speedy trials to ensure convictions of over 50,000 criminals in his first term. Sinha, who was called back to Bihar on Nitish’s call in 2006, was posted as Inspector General of Police (headquarters) and worked with the then SDGP Abhayanand in giving shape to Special Auxiliary Police (SAP), in which over 8,000 former Armymen were recruited to take on Naxals.

Sinha, who also doubled up as Bihar police spokesperson, steered clear of controversies and remained aloof from the media. He was then promoted to Additional DG (Law and Order), and monitored the implementation of Bihar Special Courts Act 2009 that allowed seizure of property of corruption-accused even during trial. “If Nitish had over a dozen people for scripting the Bihar turnaround story, Sinha had to be one of them,” said a senior IPS officer who worked with Sinha.

As Additional DG, Sinha served as the head of the Vigilance Investigation Bureau in Bihar, where he supervised several trap cases and disproportionate assets cases against public servants. Between 2010 and April 2013, Sinha was again posted on central deputation and served as Additional Secretary in the Central Vigilance Commission.

Sinha’s cousin Kumar Shailendra Mohan, a lawyer at Buxar civil court, told The Indian Express, “It is a moment of pride for all of us.”