Sack Joginder: Laloo

George Iype in New Delhi

Central Bureau of Investigation Director Joginder Singh's hasty decision to prosecute Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav is likely to boomerang on him.

Pressure from Janata Dal and the Congress party -- although for different reasons -- is mounting on Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral to sack the controversial chief of India's apex investigative agency.

The formidable Bihar chief minister and his supporters within the Dal want the CBI director to be sacked. Their reasoning: Singh is a protege of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda.

On Monday, some 10 JD members of Parliament from Bihar loyal to Yadav met the prime minister alleging that the CBI order to chargesheet their leader is part of a well-planned political conspiracy.

They also accused Singh of 'over-acting' as the CBI did not care to seek a formal sanction from the Bihar governor and President Shankar Dayal Sharma for permission to prosecute the chief minister and other state ministers.

Relations between Laloo Yadav and Deve Gowda have soured ever since the latter was forced to step down as prime minister two weeks ago. The Bihar CM's loyalists believe Singh acted on orders from Deve Gowda rather than the new UF government to proceed against Yadav.

Since the CBI director's sudden action has thrown the fledgling Gujral government into turmoil Yadav and his loyalists are expected to lay down a condition that the next CBI chief should be his appointee.

The powerful Bihar IPS lobby, loyal to Laloo Yadav, is also gunning for Singh's exit.

Joginder Singh, a Karnataka state Indian Police Service officer, was handpicked by Deve Gowda to head the CBI soon after he became the prime minister in June.

In the past 10 months, former minister of state for personnel S R Balasubramanian, who officially supervised the CBI, had complained to Deve Gowda that Singh had been over-ruling him.

In his over-enthusiasm to toe his boss's orders, Singh made many enemies especially among several senior political leaders including Congress president Sitaram Kesri.

The Congress chief holds Singh responsible for adding an eleventh hour addition to his alleged role in the Jharkand Mukti Morcha bribery scandal.

It is likely that if Kesri -- who now interacts with the prime minister on crucial issues -- asks for Singh's head, Gujral will be compelled to oblige.

While political parties want the CBI chief to be axed, Singh himself is enmeshed in a piquant situation within the investigating agency.

L Revannasidhiah, who headed the CBI's special investigation team in charge of the Bofors investigation, has returned to Bangalore as police commissioner, but Singh has not been able to find a successor.

CBI sources told Rediff On The NeT that no senior CBI officer is interested in taking charge of the SIT as he will have the troublesome brief of questioning Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's widow.

In the ongoing Bofors investigation, the CBI is yet to question Sonia Gandhi on her family's contacts with controversial Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrochi, one of the alleged recipients in the Rs 650 million kickbacks case.