A month after he took charge of the country’s premier investigating agency, ASHWANI KUMAR, a 1973-batch IPS officer from Himachal Pradesh, is yet to complete reviewing pending investigations. He has been a familiar face in the North Block (where the CBI chief has a second office) since he once headed the agency’s policy division. Kumar says he will, step by step, ensure fair play and, more importantly, empower his officers with better facilities. He discusses his future course of action with NEERAJ CHAUHAN in an exclusive interview. Excerpts:

•As CBI director, how will you ensure speedy convictions and watertight investigations?

We have efficient officers and we will provide them with better working conditions. The CBI has been working on cases very well and fair investigations have been conducted in all the cases. Governments, courts and the public have all applauded the agency for its investigations. People have faith in the CBI, which is why they want probes to be conducted by it.

•Why does the agency have hundreds of cases listed as ‘under investigation’ like the CGHS scam, Nithari killings, and cases against politicians like Mayawati and Lalu Prasad? And how would you ensure that such cases are investigated properly, as the CBI is time and again accused of being influenced by politicians?

The CBI has always finished investigations in all its cases on time and most of the cases are under trial. As far as the CGHS case is concerned, we registered 202 cases in the scam. Out of these, 177 have been chargesheeted, five are closed and investigations are pending in only 20 cases. In the Nithari case, we registered 19 cases out of which 13 have been chargesheeted and the trial is underway for them. In the remaining six cases, investigations are going on and we are going to file a chargesheet in three of them very soon. In cases against Mayawati, our investigations are over, and cases against Lalu Prasad wound up long ago.

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