The Narendra Modi government has picked former CBI chief R.K. Raghavan, who led a probe that cleared then chief minister Modi of complicity in the 2002 Gujarat riots, as high commissioner to Cyprus in its first political appointment to India's diplomatic establishment.


Unlike its predecessors, the Modi government had so far avoided political appointments to ambassadorial positions, earning the Prime Minister much goodwill within the Indian Foreign Service. With Raghavan, it has decided to make a departure from practice. Raghavan, 76, who retired in 2001 as director of India's premier investigation agency, has over his career investigated multiple high-profile cases. Read more


This is what Raghavan had to say on the role of a CBI director.