Serving and retired CBI officials describe the two-year tenure of outgoing CBI director Ranjit Sinha, which will end this week, as one that was the "most-damaging for the organisation".

The appointment of Sinha, who took over the post of CBI director on 3 December 2012, according to officials aware with the development, was made only after Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi personally cleared his name for the top post.

A former CBI director said that Sinha should not have been appointed at all. "It was with the intention of hidings its own failings that the Congress government chose Sinha, even though his name was not on the list of frontrunners. His closeness to certain top leaders from the other party also helped, as they too wanted someone who was as 'approachable' as Sinha. Under his tenure, the CBI plummeted to newer depths. Sinha's conduct has definitely tarnished the image of the agency," he said.

A defiant United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had appointed Sinha despite objections from both Sushma Swaraj, the then Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and Arun Jaitley, who was Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

When Sinha was appointed, Sharad Sinha (then the NIA director) and Atul Gupta (the then director general of Uttar Pradesh), were considered the front runners. The Minister of State for Personnel V. Narayanasamy had at the time stated that the decision was made in a "fair manner" following "due process".

However, some officials feel that some good may yet come of Sinha's tenure. One senior CBI official who worked closely with Sinha said that the last two years will prove good for the organisation in the longer run as due to Sinha's activities, now people have become more aware of the political interference that happens in the CBI.

Officials say that after Sinha's appointment, a joke became popular in official corridors: "They might have Rai, but we have Sinha," referring to Vinod Rai, then the CAG, who played an important role in unearthing the 2G scam.

Even the Intelligence Bureau (IB), with which Sinha started a "feud" over the Ishrat Jehan encounter case, was maligned by a certain section of the media that followed Sinha's directions. "Everyone knew that the IB officials in the Ishrat case were being hounded for political reasons. In the entire matter, the face was of the CBI, but ultimately, the directions came from a top Congress leader. Due to Sinha, the level of trust between the IB and CBI has also decreased tremendously, and it may take a long time to be repaired," said a recently retired IB official.

Sinha, according to senior officials, obeyed his political masters with impunity, and seemed not to care about the stinging criticism that the agency faced due to his activities. "One after another, he made shameful mistakes. Whether allegedly helping the accused in the fodder scam, or crawling before the Congress government on the coal scam, or meeting the 2G accused at his home, or publicly maligning one of his own junior officials, he did everything that is not expected from the CBI director," said the official.