The Centre on Wednesday appointed IPS officer Samant Kumar Goel, who was embroiled in the Rakesh Asthana bribery scandal last year, as chief of India’s external spy agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

His batch-mate Arvind Kumar, considered an expert on Kashmir, Maoism and counter-terrorism, has been appointed director of the country’s premier internal covert agency, the Intelligence Bureau.

According to an FIR registered with the CBI, Goel — who has been RAW operations chief for several years — had tried to dilute a money-laundering case against meat exporter Moin Qureshi with the help of alleged middlemen Manoj Prasad and Somesh Prasad.

While Goel’s name figures in the FIR, he is not an accused. The case is still pending and no chargesheet has been filed yet.

Asthana, then CBI special director, was accused of accepting a bribe through the Prasad brothers to weaken the case against Qureshi.

Several officials in the security establishment confessed themselves surprised at Goel’s latest appointment, citing the CBI’s charges against him.

“Goel and Asthana were batch-mates and are believed to have been close friends since then. Their alleged involvement in the bribery racket had embarrassed the government as both RAW and the CBI report directly to the Prime Minister’s Office,” an IPS officer posted in North Block said.

But a Union home ministry official said: “Goel is known as RAW’s operations man and has served the spy agency for years. He played a key role in the February 26 Balakot air strikes that destroyed a Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camp. RAW had provided the primary intelligence and selected the probable targets.”

India had launched the air strikes into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the February 14 Pulwama massacre that killed 40 CRPF men, but Pakistan claimed the Indian planes merely destroyed a few trees.

Kumar handled the IB’s Kashmir desk. A senior security official said Kumar had been chosen bureau chief because of “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s continuous focus on Kashmir”.

“Keeping in mind the political situation and the threats from inside and outside, a greater coordination is expected between RAW and the IB,” he added.

Goel and Kumar, both 1984-batch IPS officers, will assume charge on June 29 and June 30, respectively, and will have two-year tenures. Goel belongs to the Punjab cadre and Kumar to the Assam-Meghalaya cadre.

Anil Kumar Dhasmana and Rajiv Jain, the outgoing RAW and IB chiefs, were due to retire at the end of last year but had been granted six-month extensions keeping the Lok Sabha polls in mind.