T Rajah Balaji said his transfer order is "plainly irrational" (File)

Highlights A CBI officer was transferred within five months of his posting

He has accused M Nageswara Rao of acting out of malice

The officer claimed he had complaint about Mr Rao's misconduct

A CBI officer transferred within five months of his posting has accused the agency's interim chief M Nageswara Rao of acting out of "malice and prejudice" at the "expense of institutional and public interests".

He claimed that the action against him was due to the fact that he had complained about Mr Rao's misconduct to the then CBI director Alok Verma.

Seeking review of his transfer from Anti-Corruption Branch to Ghaziabad training academy, Superintendent of Police T Rajah Balaji has questioned the "mass transfers" done by Mr Rao as "Director in-charge".

When sought a reaction, CBI Spokesperson Nitin Wakankar said the representation from Mr Balaji about his transfer has not yet been received in the office of the director.

Additional Director Rao was given duties and responsibilities of CBI director after a high-level committee transferred Mr Verma as DG Fire Services on January 10.

After assuming duty, Mr Rao ordered mass transfers in the agency from the ranks of joint directors to ASPs. No justifications were given for the exercise.

Mr Balaji, who was transferred in a late night order on January 21, said he was given the posting in New Delhi by Mr Verma on humanitarian grounds on August 1, 2018 so that his mother-in-law, a cancer patient undergoing treatment at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, can be taken care of.

He said this is the fourth time within two years that he has been transferred.

He said Minister of Urban Development and Housing Affairs allotted him accommodation in East Kidwai Nagar which is close to AIIMS.

"It is a known fact that I had complained about your misconduct to the then Director CBI on March 11, 2017 and subsequently when you had served me with a memo, your misconduct was set out in more explicit terms by me vide letter May 2, 2017, and, now you have abused your official position to service your personal sleepless malice and prejudice against me at the expense of institutional and public interests," Mr Balaji said.

Mr Wakankar said appropriate action will be taken once the representation is received.

"As and when it is received through proper channel, appropriate action as per rules will be taken. It may further be mentioned that Rajah Balaji has been transferred to Ghaziabad which is the part of the NCR only," he said.

In his letter, which is also part of his petition to the Central Administrative Tribunal, Mr Balaji said the post of director cannot be used for any purpose other than institutional and public interests.

He said the transfer order does not offer any reasons. "It is a known fact in the public domain that the three- member high committee is to meet on January 24, 2019 to select the next director, CBI and as a matter of propriety, it was incumbent and necessary in your capacity as only director-in-charge not to go on a spree of mass transfers of various officers from the level of joint directors to additional superintendents of police, and resort to any necessary transfer only on rational grounds that merit such a course in public interest," he said in his letter dated January 22.

The meeting of the high-level committee comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge to select the new CBI chief remained inconclusive on January 24.

A new date of the meeting is yet to be decided.

Mr Balaji said his transfer order is "plainly irrational" because as director in-charge, no review or inspection of the branches has been carried out by Mr Rao to deduce why such mass transfers were necessary.

"I request you on purely humanitarian grounds in the hope that you can truly make a start to redeem your humanity. It is never late in life to become a good man again. Trust me. Trust the better part of your heart. No More, no less," he wrote to Mr Rao.

The post of the CBI chief has been lying vacant since January 10 after the exit of Mr Verma, who was engaged in a bitter fight with Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana over corruption charges.

Both Mr Verma and Mr Asthana have accused each other of corruption.

Mr Verma, after being removed from the post of CBI director, was named as the Director General of Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guards - a less significant portfolio. He did not accept the offer and wrote to the government, saying he should be considered as deemed superannuated as he has completed 60 year age of superannuation.