Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami on Wednesday night resigned from the post after the Centre asked him to put in his papers following the disclosure that he tried to influence the CBI not to arrest former Congress Minister Matang Sinh in the Saradha chit fund scam. Rural Development Secretary lC Goyal, a 1979-batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre, will replace Goswami as new Home Secretary. Sources said that the order for Goyal’s appointment was being processed and it could be notified at the earliest. Goyal had served in the Home Ministry as Joint Secretary (Internal Security) a few years ago.
Goswami was allowed to resign to give him a “dignified” exit, official sources said on a day of hectic activities following media reports that Goswami, a UPA Government appointee, had tried to prevent CBIofficers from carrying out Sinh’s arrest on Saturday. The Home Secretary had called up CBI officials when Sinh was being questioned by the SIT in Kolkata on Saturday. In his meeting with Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday, CBI Director Anil Sinha confirmed that Goswami did try to influence the probe.
After getting the facts from the CBI Director and Goswami, the Home Minister briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Thereafter, Goswami was summoned to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) for a meeting with Principal Secretary Nripendra Misra and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. The PMO made it clear to Goswami that his continuation was untenable after Goswami admitted his wrongdoing during a meeting with Rajnath Singh and PMO high-ups.
Goswami’s sacking comes soon after curtailment of the tenure of former Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh was effected recently. When Sinh was being questioned on Saturday, Goswami had told a senior CBI official probing the Saradha scam and other chit fund scam cases: “Don’t take any action in haste. He (Matang Sinh) is a respected politician and is known to me for several years.”
The senior CBI official responded by saying: “We are examining and questioning him (Sinh) on facts. Whatever action we take is always based on facts and evidence.” The senior CBI official immediately called up the CBI Director and apprised him about the inappropriate call he had received from the Home Secretary.
The CBI is believed to have sent a report to the PMO in this regard, sources in the agency said. Goswami is known to share a good relation with Sinh and his decision to extend Z-category security to Sinh had also raised eyebrows in several quarters. Goswami, a 1977-batch IAS officer of Jammu & Kashmir cadre, was appointed by the previous UPA Government and his two-year tenure would have ended in June this year. He completed 60 years of age on January 31.
A visibly upset Goswami refused to take any questions from the media. “Have you ever heard me say anything (to the media),” he told reporters earlier during the day. Meanwhile, the CBI on Wednesday reshuffled a number of Joint Directors. It transferred Ashok Tiwari who was supervising the probe into the 2G scam to MDMA that is probing the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. Tiwari’s brief has been handed over to Anurag Garg who was looking after Training.
Prabodh Kumar, who has been handling major anti-corruption cases including Tatra truck scam, AgustaWestland case among others, has been transferred to Banking Services and Fraud Section while RP Agrawal has been given charge of the Anti-Corruption Wing of the agency. Rajeev Sharma who was handling Banking Services and Fraud Section has been transferred to Economic Offences Zone-I besides looking after anti-corruption branches of Chandigarh, Nagpur, Jabalpur and Bhopal.
RS Bhatti, who is in charge of policy, media relations and CBI’s snooping wing Special Unit, has been given additional charge of the Technical and Forensic unit. AK Singh, heading Patna Zone, has been given additional charge of Kolkata Zone after Suman Bala Sahoo was moved to her parent cadre.