Senior Congress leader and leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge has written to the prime minister Narendra Modi  raising objections about the appointment of M Nageswara Rao as the CBI’s interim director.

Kharge termed Rao’s appointment as “illegal” and demanded that a meeting of the selection committee be convened immediately to appoint a new chief of the probe agency.

Kharge also alleged that the government is scared of CBI led by an “independent” director.

Mallikarjun Kharge is part of the prime minister-headed three-member panel that removed Alok Verma as CBI chief.

“Actions of the government indicate that it’s scared of a CBI headed by an independent director,” Kharge wrote in his letter to PM Modi.

He also demanded that the government comes clean on the issues and make public the CVC report, Justice A K Patnaik’s report and minutes of the January 10 meeting.

Rao’s appointment as CBI interim chief is “illegal”, the Congress leader wrote in the letter.

Barely two days after the Supreme Court reinstated him, Verma was Thursday last removed as CBI director by the high-powered committee headed by PM Modi on charges of corruption and dereliction of duty, in an unprecedented action in the central probe agency’s 55-year history.

There were eight charges against Verma in the CVC report presented before the committee that also comprised Kharge and Justice A K Sikri, nominated by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.

—India Legal Bureau