Rishi Kumar Shukla takes charge as CBI director

Newly-appointed CBI chief Rishi Kumar Shukla took charge of the probe agency on Monday, officials said.

Shukla, a 1983-batch IPS officer, took charge at a time when the agency is busy in a dirty battle of turf war with the Kolkata Police which has spiralled into a political slugfest between the Centre and West Bengal government.

RK Shukla, IPS, took over charge as director of the CBI this morning, CBI spokesperson Nitin Wakankar said.

The arrival of 58-year old Shukla, a former DGP of Madhya Pradesh and an Intelligence Bureau veteran, as a full- fledged director is likely to bring some sort of order in the agency that has moved the Supreme Court to challenge the action of West Bengal government in ponzi scam cases.

A perplexed interim CBI chief M Nageswara Rao was seen scrambling resources to counter the state police's action which not only detained a CBI team which went to question Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, but also cordoned off the agency's office at CGO complex in Salt Lake city.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had started a dharna on Sunday evening protesting against the alleged high handedness of the Centre and insults meted out to her by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.  Banerjee's reaction was triggered when a team of CBI officials arrived unannounced at the doors of the Kolkata police chief to question him in connection with Saradha and Rose Valley scams.

The investigations in these cases have been sped up in the run up to general elections with the agency recently questioning a close aide of Banerjee at his residence.

The team was stopped by West Bengal police personnel and they were bundled into a police vehicle and taken to a police station.  The West Bengal police took the action as the agency officials failed to produce any warrant, state police officials said.