Rajiv Singh, who has been repatriated to Tripura cadre, was heading the bank securities and fraud cell of the CBI.
New Delhi: Six of 20 CBI units and zones handling sensitive cases — including the Nirav Modi fraud case — are functioning without heads, ThePrint has learnt.
Two joint directors — Rajiv Singh and Nina Singh — were prematurely repatriated to their parent cadre. While Rajiv Singh was sent to Tripura, Nina Singh has gone back to Rajasthan. Four other posts of joint directors in the premier investigating agency are also lying vacant, a government source said.
Rajiv Singh was heading the bank securities and fraud cell of the CBI, which has been handling the Nirav Modi bank scam case worth Rs 13,500 crore, a case against an IDBI Bank general manager for allegedly defrauding the lender of Rs 445 crore, another bank fraud case amounting to Rs 19.03 crore and an alleged loan fraud of Rs 824.15 crore allegedly committed by Chennai-based Kanishk Gold Pvt Ltd involving a consortium of 14 banks led by the State Bank of India.
Rajiv Singh was also looking into the preliminary inquiry initiated into the ICICI bank-Videocon loan case.
Nina Singh was heading the special crime zone that cracked several cases including the murder of a student in a Gurugram school and the Kotkhai gang rape and murder case in Himachal Pradesh. Both cases were transferred to the CBI following allegations of a “shoddy probe” by local police.
Nina Singh was also the supervisory officer of the high-profile Sheena Bora murder case in Mumbai.
“These are regular transfers. The posts lying vacant do not in any way mean that the work or investigation will get affected,” said a CBI officer.
“Also, joint directors of zones are handling multiple charges so it will be unfair to say that those units or zones are headless. In fact, the joint directors only supervise the cases and take updates. The appointments will soon be made,” the officer added.