Praveen Sood, the newly appointed CBI chief

In a high-power panel meeting that consisted of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Leader of Opposition Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury have elected Praveen Sood as the new CBI Chief.

Praveen Sood is a 1986 batch IPS officer and currently serves as the Karnataka DGP. He has been appointed as the new CBI director for two years and will replace Subodh Jaiswal whose tenure ends this month on 25th May.

Sood is a Himachal Pradesh native and is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Delhi, Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Bangalore, and Syracuse University in New York. After joining IPS, he received his first posting at Mysore in 1989. Thereafter, he served as Superintendent of Police, Bellary and Raichur before serving as Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Bengaluru.

From 2004 and 2007, he was the Commissioner of Police of Mysore. During this time, Sood and his team arrested two terrorists Fahad alias Mohammed Koya from Karachi and Mohammed Ali Hussain alias Jahangir. They were convicted for waging war against the nation under the provisions of the Explosive Substances Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Over the years, Praveen Sood has been bestowed with many awards and gained recognition for his work. In the year 1996, he was awarded the Chief Minister’s Gold Medal for excellence in service, then in 2002 Sood received the Police Medal for Meritorious Service and in the year 2011, he was presented with President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service.

Praveen Sood was the additional commissioner of police (Traffic) for Bengaluru from 2008 to 2011. He was appointed as managing director of the Karnataka State Police Housing Corporation in 2013. Here he managed to efficiently increase the company’s turnover from ₹160 crore to ₹282 crore in 8-9 months. He provided his expertise in administration as well. Like say, Sood successfully established Namma 100’, an ‘Emergency Response System that has round-the-clock support for Emergency Response Vehicles all over Bengaluru. Sood even established the ‘Suraksha’ App and the ‘Pink Hoyasala’ run by female officers that is designed for helping women and children in trouble.