Vigilance Commissioner Suresh N. Patel was on Wednesday appointed as the Central Vigilance Commissioner, a year after the post fell vacant.

Patel has been working as the acting Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) since June this year. He was sworn in as the chief of the Central Vigilance Commission by President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan. .

“At a ceremony held today at 1000 hours at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Shri Suresh N Patel, was sworn in as the Central Vigilance Commissioner. He made and subscribed the oath of his office before the President,” a communique issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday said.

The ceremony was also attended by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu.

Former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Sanjay Kothari had completed his term as the CVC on June 24 last year.

It may be recalled that Patel was in April 2020 appointed as the vigilance commissioner. Prior to that, he was managing director and chief executive officer of Andhra Bank.

The Central Vigilance Commission is headed by a Central Vigilance Commissioner and it can have two vigilance commissioners. At present, there is no vigilance commissioner working in the Commission.

A three-member selection panel headed by the Prime Minister had met in July to decide on the CVC and vigilance commissioners. The other two members on the panel are Union Home Minister and the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha.

During the meeting, the panel approved Patel’s appointment as the CVC. It also approved the appointments of former Intelligence Bureau chief Arvind Kumar and ex-bureaucrat Praveen Kumar Srivastava as the vigilance commissioners.

Both Kumar and Srivastava were to be sworn in as vigilance commissioners by CVC Patel on Wednesday.

Kumar completed his term as the chief of internal security intelligence agency on June 30 this year.

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