Ahead of the general elections next year and the defeat of the ruling BJP in the Hindi heartland States’ Assembly polls , the Centre has granted extension of service of six months to Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief Rajiv Jain and external Intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) boss Anil Dhasmana. Both were due to retire later this month end.
While Jain’s tenure was to end on December 30, Dhasmana was slated to retire from service on December 29.
The decision to extend the tenure of the two Intelligence chiefs was taken due to the forthcoming general election and the Centre wants the new Government to take a decision on the appoints for the top posts of the covert agencies, officials said. Jain, a 1980-batch IPS officer of
Jharkhand cadre, was appointed IB Director on December 30, 2016, for a fixed tenure of two years.
A recipient of the President’s Police Medal, Jain has served in various departments of IB, including the sensitive Kashmir Desk.
He was advisor to the previous NDA Government’s interlocutor on Kashmir KC Pant when talks were held with separatist leaders like Shabbir Shah.
Dhasmana, a 1981-batch officer from the Madhya Pradesh cadre, has been with RAW for 23 years, during which he served in important areas, including the Pakistan Desk and is considered an expert on Balochistan.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) that granted extensions to Jai and Dhasmana also redesignated Anil Srivastava, 1985-batch IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre from advisor, NITI Aayog, to principal adviser, the order issued on Friday said.