NEW DELHI, May 11: With the change of guard at the Centre a power struggle within the CBI has broken out. CBI director Joginder Singh is apprehensive that he may be divested of his plum posting shortly and is fighting desperately to stay on.

Singh seems keen to damage the chances of any potential successor. The mysterious probe launched recently against the CBI's special director D R Kartikeyan is believed to be part of this game-plan.

Kartikeyan is reported to have been found guilty of leaking sensitive Rajiv Gandhi case diaries to a magazine correspondent and blaming his juniors for it.

Surprisingly, Kartikeyan was not given an opportunity to rebut the charge, which was essentially based on the evidence of the magazine correspondent. The inquiry was conducted by R N Sinha and the report sent to Joginder Singh in March. The magazine has since apologised for the article, Kartikeyan is an IPS officer of the 1964 batch belonging to the Karnataka cadre. Joginder Singh was earlier able to get the better of Kartikeyan because of his seniority and proximity to the former Prime Minister, Deve Gowda and influential politicians like CPM general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet and Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.

R C Sharma, another special director belonging to the 1963 batch of the IPS, who was side-lined earlier was deprived by Singh of all important portfolios in the CBI. Sharma was to replace K Vijaya Rama Rao in June last year when Joginder Singh was brought by Deve Gowda from the Railway Protection Force.

Singh seems to have adopted a two-pronged approach. He is also banking on the judiciary to stall his immediate transfer on the grounds that he is handling some very politically sensitive cases including the Bofors payments, the Indian Bank scam, the Rs 133 crore Urea scam and the LOC scandal in Assam .

His announcement from Jaipur about the Bofors case particularly when the third secret bank account documents are yet to be received from Berne is an indication of his desperation.

Singh is accused of attempting to destabilise the new Gujral government, even before it could settle down, by prematurely announcing the filing of charge sheets in the Fodder scam on April 27, while the papers were sent to the Governor only a fortnight later.

Joginder Singh's meeting with Gujral last week was far from amiable. He had hoped to raise the Bihar fodder scam but Gujral insisted it would be improper to do so and even stated this in Parliament apparently to prevent Singh from spreading a distorted version of his meeting with the PM. Gujral warned Singh against leaking confidential information to the Press.

But in an apparent defiance of the PM's advice, Singh announced in Jaipur last week that he would shortly be filing the Bofors charge sheet.

In contrast to Singh's cool relationship with Gujral, when Deve Gowda was Prime Minister, Singh called on him almost daily. It is believed that Singh went out of his way to assist Gowda in his political agenda of weakening his political adversaries.

Gujral's agenda is different, hence Joginder Singh will probably have to eventually to make way for a person who has the confidence of the new Prime Minister. But Singh hopes that even if he goes, it will not be without creating a hue and cry in Parliament over his transfer.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.