New Delhi, January 16: The high-powered Selection Committee is likely to meet on January 24 to appoint the new CBI Director, sources said here. Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads the committee, in which the Chief Justice of India and the Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge are the other members.

The sources said the government had proposed the meeting on January 21 earlier while Kharge wanted the meeting on January 24 or 25. After mutual consultations, the government has finalised January 24 as the date for the meeting to select the new CBI Director, a post which is lying vacant ever since the government removed Alok Verma and appointed him as Director General Fire Service. Alok Verma Not 1st CBI Chief at Loggerheads With Govt, Atal Bihari Vajpayee Had Sacked Trinath Mishra in 1998.

IPS officer M Nageswara Rao was named the interim director of the CBI. The Congress has been attacking the prime minister for not appointing a regular CBI Director. Kharge had also written to the prime minister demanding early holding of the meeting of the high powered committee to appoint a regular CBI Director.