Meet Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, the new CBI chief who took the reins today

Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, the chief of Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF), has been appointed the new director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a two-year period. The ex-Maharashtra police chief was picked for the top job out of a pool of three candidates shortlisted by a high-level panel headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India’s premier law enforcement agency had been working without a regular director for more than three months after Rishi Kumar Shukla completed his two-year tenure on February 3.

Jaiswal has had a long and illustrious career across several of the country’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Mumbai top cop

The 58-year-old Jaiswal belongs to the 1985 Indian Police Service (IPS) batch of the Maharashtra cadre.

In 2018, he was handpicked by then Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to be the Mumbai police commissioner and went on to become the Maharashtra director-general of police (DGP) before seeking central deputation.

In December last year, Jaiswal took charge as director-general of the CISF.

Read | Subodh Kumar Jaiswal is the new CBI Director

Spying and intelligence

Jaiswal has also held positions in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and worked with the country’s foreign intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) for nine years.

Major cases and roles

Jaiswal led the Maharashtra police’s 2003 investigation that probed Abdul Karim Telgi's multi-crore fake stamp paper scam that was later transferred to the CBI. He was also part of the Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad that investigated the 2006 Malegaon bombings.

Jaiswal worked with the Special Protection Group (SPG) that guarded former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

He also oversaw the investigation of the Elgaar Parishad and Bhima Koregaon violence cases as Maharashtra DGP until they were transferred to the CBI in 2020.

Run-ins with MVA government

Towards the end of his tenure as Maharashtra DGP, Jaiswal reportedly had disagreements with the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) state government over lobbying for posts by some senior police officials.

Jaiswal was also unhappy with some transfers of IPS officers and had even refused to sign on a transfer list put forward by the government before seeking central deputation last year.